Into the spider-verse Again
by Sayamchak123
Summary: A continuation from the animated movie finds the heroes relaxing before Peter reveals strange occurrences happening in his universe..or the multiverse and the others come together to investigate the forces and uncover the truth.
1. Chapter 1

Into the spider-verse again

Miles was laying on his bed chilling. Sunflower was blazing in his earphones. He finally did it. Embracing his abilities as spiderman instilled in him a new enthusiasm for life and a fulfilment he never quiet found before. Sure he hung out with his friends before, wasn't socially awkward (not including his first encounter with Gwen!), his passion for Graffiti but now his recent experiences coupled with his abilities gave him a renewed sense of purpose.

 _He was walking down the neighbourhood when .. a kid dropped his ice-cream it slowed down a person was talking to his boss while the mayo off the sandwich he was eating went splat on his face while his expression which should have morphed into a frown froze into.. well something else. A car screeches for an unusually long time before skidding.." Wait what the heck is going on?" Miles thought before a sudden chill crawled through his skin. Suddenly he turned around and ran, seconds later hearing a gunshot before coming to a still."" guess the sixth sense sort of kicked in" he thought before he threw a couple of shots taping his back pack and pushing the garbage can covering it. "next ones coming out of your allowance kiddo" echoed his dad's words in his mind._

 _The bullet barely managed to graze off of the shopkeeper's head in the tussle before a gust of wind swooped in and disarmed the robber. Then he went ahead and knocked him out. Then two more robbers emerged with guns to their heads. Two quick web-shots to their heads and mouths and before they could realize it they were tied to the back alley with the title "property of police" on them._

End of flashback

All of a sudden a similar looking portal opened up in his ceiling and he realized it was Gwen calling him. With a quick text to his parents he grabbed his bag-pack picked up his suit and jumped in.

Simultaneously he felt he was everywhere and no-where like pieces of him were being shred apart and blended simultaneously together and being strewn everywhere before landing face first on the floor.

Gwen was waiting for him, she said "Guess your reflexes still needs work" with a grin on her face. Miles got up and wiped off the pasta and sauce from his face. " I didn't exactly bring a change of clothes" wrapping the oversized towel around himself. Gwen stared at him before she started laughing.

" What's so funny?" he asked. She slowed down before sputtering "nothing just remembered something about someone saying something about puberty".

Miles looked at her, he couldn't remember anytime he saw Gwen laughing like this. He thought that maybe she really feels comfortable around him . She seemed lighter, her hair was still the same except more like the second time she met her since it had been a couple days we met, her voice didn't carry the otherwise sombre tone this time, which probably means it's a social visit before registering what she said.

" Uhh yeah I guess" " _nice comeback idiot_ " he thought before eyeing some clean pyjamas that was probably belonged to Gwen's dad.

"There's a car chase happening be right back"

"Want me to help you"?

"No I got this you can..uhh take a shower considering" gestures towards him.

"Oh okay" and with that he waited till Gwen was out of side before turning…and seeing his sauce smeared chin and across his lower lip, arms and legs in the mirror.

"So much for making an impression" he thought before taking in the room. There were some paintings of famous drummers, photos as well concerts that she was a part of. Looking around he saw a drum set laying around there. "Ya lets give it a shot"

You think after all this time high speed car chase would be the last way to make an escape, given that the resident superhero can literally cross entire neighbourhoods within a minute and the fact that many criminals have already tried and failed in the past. But some fools every now and then decided to test their luck every now and then. But the trick was to not damage any other cars along the way.

Gwen had trained for this. Ever since she heard Peter(in the other universe) able to stop a moving train she knew she finally had a way to stop the mini carnage that usually accompanied stopping car chases.

But she had to time it right, taking a second to catch her breath….the first two webs already touching the target before she jumped off the police car, bullets whizzing past her before the thieves took a sharp turn and swerved right. Before they could empty another clip the gun was already out of his hands and and both his hands were coated in web white, while he registered all of a sudden the car jerked upward.

"What the hell is going on?" his partner asked sporting similar "web cuffs" before he suddenly hit the roof and an odd feeling of being lifted upwards followed by weightlessness set in before stopping suddenly a few feet off the ground.

Gwen watched from the top of a building as the police cuffed and escorted them away. She did it. The tough part was ensuring the thieves were not injured in the process. That and" The destruction of property due to your intervention cannot be greater than the police themselves otherwise you might as well just not do it!", that was the last thing a lawyer told her when she first started out. Of course given her identity was unknown suing would be a tad bit impossible but public perception was important as well. Looking back she couldn't help but wonder maybe that was frustration and ungratefulness directed towards her than just advice about acceptable superhuman behaviour.

"Anyways this was better than all the other times" she thought while getting back.

Meanwhile at her house Miles was having the time of his life. Headphones blasting away sunflower by Swan lee while he was dancing away and singing …wearing a towel. He had just finished taking a shower after which he decided to belt out to the tunes and play it on the drums, right after the chorus finished before a loud "ahem" alerted a presence in the room.

He stopped and turned nearly dropping his towel. Gwen quickly closed her eyes while he put on pyjamas. "So how much of that did you see?" "Just enough" she replied with a smirk.

Visibly embarrassed she decided to go easy on him and moved the conversation forward. "So you wanna go out"? "Where" he asked. " How about a movie and then maybe we grab a bite to eat?"

" _Is this a date_ ".. "Sure let's go" he said "Meet me on the roof" before catching the steam stained mirror in the bathroom. " _That's weird how long was I gone for_ "…

Miles and Gwen swung through the sprawling skyline of New York city. Miles took in the city. At first glance it seemed like a replica of back home but a deeper look revealed obvious differences in design. For example some of the corporate buildings had futuristic designs the likes of which he had never seen, one of the buildings was even shaped like a swastika with a hideous head that almost looked like a weird emoji.

"Did world war 2 happen over here?" pointing in that direction slightly disturbed by that building. "

Yeah it did" she replied raised an eyebrow after landing not really understanding what he was talking about. Miles decided to shrug it off for a later time to learn more about the new universe and to help him blend here.

"Please turn off your cellphones and.." the instructions played out while Gwen snatched Miles's smartphone away. Then someone nudged him on the elbow before taking his popcorn away before Peter landed beside him while swiftly taking the cold drink away from Gwen took it back.

"Hey Peter how's it going?"

"Oh you know MJ and I started talking again she was willing to try things again. Spiderman was missing for a couple of days so my return was met with a positive reception". Well actually it was mostly positive not considering the homeless goon who held a family hostage when just to get some publicity to fulfil his bucket list but Peter decided to leave that bit out for another day.

"Listen after the movies can we go someplace private we need to talk about something".

" Sure what's up" Gwen asked

"Have you guys noticed anything strange?" Seeing the looks he received upon his choice of words he continued.

 **Hello everyone this is my first fanfiction ,a continuation from the movie Spiderman into the Spiderverse. I have a couple of ideas where this can go in terms of characterisation,plot and storytelling so it might diverge from the comics and the movies. Please give this a chance be sure to review and give this a chance and thank you in advance to all who read this. Enjoy**


	2. Chapter 1 continued

Part 2:-

"No what I mean is have you guys noticed lapses in reality or something"? "Or being displaced " Peter continued.

"What do you mean?" Gwen perked up at this remembering earlier the steamed mirror in the bathroom was still despite being gone for a long while

" _Peter what uh…you're alive…wait what are you doing here? MJ pauses slowly approaching Peter torn between wanting to give him a hug and keeping herself in check remembering the past. Peter drank in her appearance, she was as beautiful as ever as she placed a hand on his face. He allowed himself to lean into her touch for a moment and had to stop himself from kissing her before realizing the reason for the visit._

" _I am so sorry for all the pain I caused you…before being cut off by a slap to his face._

" _I thought you were dead jerk! Everybody in New York thought that you were dead or missing! Where the hell have you been?" And then she slapped him again._

" _OK I probably deserved that, look I can explain everything" before dodging her slap this time and catching her wrist " You do remember I have awesome reflexes" before noticing the "really this is your defence" look MJ was giving him_

 _Pausing for a bit to collect his thoughts " Look I know we didn't part on the best of terms and I know that you have every right to be mad at me but recently some things have happened for me to reconsider some choices I have made regarding us and if you just give me a chance to explain." He said in one breath._

 _MJ continued to stare at him looking like she would slap him again before he found the courage to say "well can I continue? "_

" _Give me the cliff notes"_

" _It's really more complicated than that.."_

" _C'mon Peter I know all of your adventures what could have possibly happened for you to consider coming here, you walked away..remember" Peter flinched at the accusation" so just say whatever you have to say"_

 _He blurted out " I landed in another universe where I was dead I mean my counterpart was killed in action by trying to stop an evil supervillan who was trying to create a particle explosion that would bring back his family who deserted him. I joined forces with a kid who got bit by a similar spider and he gained abilities similar to mine in addition to new ones. We then joined forces with other spider-people including a talking pig to stop this guy from trying again and considering the universe is in one piece we succeeded!" He then took a deep breath to collect himself and opened his eyes._

 _MJ's mouth was opening and closing while she rubbed her temples. She raised one pointy finger to stop him from rambling further._

" _That's it I need a drink.." before turning back and entering the house but left the door open._

" _Ok she didn't close the door so it's probably my cue to enter" he thought before entering the house._

 _The house was pretty much the same except some of the photos that he took with him. One particular photo was still in place. It was the photo of their second date together on the roof overlooking the city just looking at each other. Peter remembered it like yesterday._

 _MJ came out with two glasses of wine and handed one to Peter before chugging her entire glass at one go. She then took the other glass from Peter and downed it entirely, before placing both glasses and filling them again._

" _Here I thought I had seen everything that was possible" she said after finishing the third glass "Ok tell me everything and what exactly led to this visit?"_

 _So Peter proceeded to tell her everything to the first portal that teleported him away to Miles's universe, meeting Miles telling his story, the particle collider explosion that lead to opening multiple portals across the multiverse that included other spider people. Every battle they faced and Miles's journey and his numerous failed attempts at him, the joy he found while "training him under severe life threatening conditions" to his uncle's loss that culminated in him to finally gain control over his abilities after a confrontation all the way to the end._

 _MJ took it all in, eyes widening in the revelation before her. She remained still just staring at Peter not realizing that her prolonged silence wasn't helping her confidence._

" _So you nearly died again while trying to save the multiverse? The fact that it has not collapsed is proof this kid succeeded and this changed your mind about… us?_

 _Peter sighed "Look I know this is a lot but the truth is the only reason I came back from there was you.. MJ opened her eyes wide at the revelation "What I mean to say is that I would really like us to try again…this event with Miles and the others made me realize that…I mean if that is still what you want."_

" _You still love me even after everything that happened?"_

" _MJ I separated myself from you because I wasn't really ready to take the next step". He stepped closer to her placing his palms on her face." I never stopped loving you I never could"._

" _I know this is sudden and it's a lot and if you don't want to I can.." he really did not know what to say if said no. It would be like reopening flesh wounds again._

" _I need time to think..I don't know ok I still think about you everyday..I..she trailed off looking at him eyes shining with tears._

 _Peter hesitantly took her in his arms and just held her for a couple of minutes glad she did not push him away. " I can go if you need time to process this" he said testing the waters a bit to see what she would say._

" _No just stay please I missed this...she paused to collect her words " but you are not out of the waters yet". Peter let out a breath he realized he had been holding. This was good, this was progress he was not expecting tonight._

 _They stood there silently holding each other when he noticed it. Colours and blips similar to the portal that teleported him started appearing all around the room, the couch and disappeared almost instantaneously, if it wasn't for his reflexes he wouldn't have noticed it. He looked down at MJ._

 _He saw her standing in his arms, his hands on her face just a few feet apart just like they were a couple of seconds ago and then merge into the MJ into her arms. The MJ in his arms did not even move or even realize it as her eyes were closed._

" _What exactly happened here? Was it a ghost? A mirage?" Peter's mind raced a mile a minute and shifted slightly while holding MJ tighter. MJ noticed it_

" _What's wrong?"_

 _Peter debated telling her but he wasn't really sure how to say it. He decided being honest was the best course considering he was on shaky waters._

" _Did you feel anything strange? Like something came out of you and you gained it back"_

" _No" she looked at him incredulously before looking down, and poked at his belly_

" _speaking of gaining something.."_

" _Yeah I know enough people have pointed it out, it's almost an obsession with abs and superheroes these days!"_

 _They continued talking before deciding to take it slow and start of from where they left off. This was uncharted territory for both of them so being cautious seemed like the smart course of action._

 _Peter decided to crash in the living room for the night as he wasn't sure if the event would repeat again just for MJ's safety and his peace of mind. They decided to go on a date like old times to catch up with each other's lives._

 _End of flashback_

Peter paused to look at Miles and Gwen in the present looking at him with concern the movie completely from their minds.

Miles broke the silence "You're saying that a literal out of body experience took place at the very exact moment you hugged her? How is that possible I thought I destroyed the particle accelerator the moment Kingpin hit the kill switch?"

Gwen "Maybe there is still operational somehow left did you notice anything similar back in your universe?"

" No I didn't did you?

" Well today when I went to stop a car chase and I was gone for like a good half hour or so but when I came back the bathroom mirror was still full of steam..

" Hold on you were gone for half hour. I was in the shower for like 5 minutes…" Miles said trying hard to ignore the blush on his face remembering how she saw him in the face of this new fact.

" No it took me more than that to even reach the chase was happening in the other side of the city.."

They all looked at each other just digesting the situation.

Peter jumped in" It looks like some kind of distortion in time cause when I was holding MJ in my arms it out of body experience or mirage or whatever the hell it was showing the events but that's not all that happened."

"wait there's more?" Miles asked

Peter nodded before continuing

 _The date was going pretty well. They managed to talk about anything and everything late into the night. It wasn't quite like before, the hesitation and caution was still there like a shadow looming over them. But they both decided to start over again with the hope that the trust will build over time._

 _Right before dropping MJ at her house he heard sirens go off in the distance._

 _Before he could even say anything she answered "Go I get it duty calls" not before Peter swooped in and gave her a passionate kiss. It lingered for a moment before he took a deep breath and looked at her. She was smiling, this was good._

" _I'll be right back" Peter swung away in the direction of the sirens. What he saw surprised him. A car chase was happening but every time he got close they flashed a bright light stunning him momentarily and getting away. The colour of the car also changed each time ,sometimes cloaking itself with the roads and managed to dodge some of the police cars._

" _Damn this suit really needs an upgrade" Peter grumbled before wondering how exactly did they get their hands on this kind of tech before the car suddenly swerved right and came to a screeching halt._

 _Peter landed right in front of the cops who had their guns drawn to the car shouting for the suspects to exit the car. He approached slowly, his mind screaming at him it was some kind a trick._

 _When all of a sudden everything froze. Peter could not move and then he saw the familiar signs of dimensional blips appearing all around him over and over again running over buildings and the people around him._

 _Then he saw the car swerving right and he saw himself chasing after it before coming and stopping at the exact spot the car had stopped a couple of seconds ago. He saw his mirage landing right in front of it just as he had. It was literally like someone had hit rewind on the world and was allowing everyone to experience it as well._

 _He saw his mirage, a lighter more transparent version of him literally reach his exact spot. He wasn't even hurting, there was no physical or mental pain that he felt. He was just stuck unable to anything despite his powers._

 _Then the car suddenly shined bright before revealing an empty spot where nothing remained except Peter himself and the police._

" _Spiderman can you explain this?"_

 _Peter turned around " I have no earthly idea."_


	3. NOTE

**Hey guys this is in response to my previous chapter**

 **Thanks to everyone who took the time to read it, if you liked it please make sure to leave a review as I am new to this and I am looking to improve, I have a general sense of direction of where I want this fiction to go. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the animated movie Spiderman into the Spider-verse I highly recommend you go and give it a try.**

 **If you have ideas/ suggestions for the story you can message me anytime and I will look into it.**


	4. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

They all sat silently sitting around looking at the plates of food in front of them. Gwen was a regular here so it certainly raised eyebrows with the waiter who usually served her to see an increase in appetite. So she told him she had started training for decathlons leading to increased metabolism and endurance. Technically with the training she had undergone she could be a top notch player and now training Miles was also in the picture. Being Subtle with lies and half- truths that can be backed up later was something she had learned through hard experience and that it was a necessary evil in their line of work to protect the ones you cared about .

However today all they could do was nibble their food, mind swirling with confusion, mild panic and frankly a unique blend of fear and awe at who and what was behind this.

The only good side in the events was that no one was harmed. At least none that they knew of and according to the police reports. Witness reports could not even confirm that the phenomenon occurred as the only thing they saw was a flash of light. They did not even remember the "flashback" claiming nothing happened.

Gwen asked the only thing everyone was thinking of

"Peter, what about the scene of crime? Did they actually steal anything? "

" The official report is that two masked men wearing completely black suits arrived started terrorizing them with guns as per the description. They actually held the cashier at gunpoint and asked him and everyone else to turn in all valuable items and cash. But once they saw the police coming they fled the scene."

"Is it possible they were counting on you to follow them"

"Gwen that does not make any sense" Miles said

"Look it is possible that we weren't the only ones who came through when the accelerator was turned on the first time? What if they were threats from other dimensions like the one from the Peter from 1933? They were in all black right?" Maybe they wanted to test your reaction"

"Yeah that's the thing the cloaking tech was unlike anything I have ever seen instantly adapting to the environment. There was no nameplate as well so it was probably custom made and last I check this kind of tech did not exist back then. Why would they steal valuables if they already have the resources to acquire tech like that?"

" Is it possible Kingpin in my world is behind all this again? I know he is jail but he did have powerful friends like Dr. Olivia. He is going on convicted soon unless the lawyer he has manages to push things to trial" seeing a raised eyebrow from both Peter and Gwen. "C'mon you both realize I have to go to school, I do have to read during the day and sometimes at night plus my father is a cop…"

" _Crap night"_

It had been a couple of hours since he came to meet Gwen, it was the weekend, almost nightfall and Miles had promised his parents some quality time together. Ever since witnessing the incident his father had become more kind, more open and understanding towards his family letting Miles do his own thing with graffiti, being protective and more at guard at all times while giving him more space. However not before "grounding" him for two whole days by literally shadowing him wherever he went and patrolling around his dorm room building at all hours with the occasional stroll across the corridor. It was borderline creepy from the outside but Miles did not fight back with the same energy as before. He understood in a way when he had almost ghosted on them when he was learning to become Spider-man and he still hadn't told his parents his secret. His mother was however a different story..

" _Miles where were you?_

" _You know I was at a friend's house Ma"_

" _Yes I know that but you said it would be over by 2, which means that you would have been here by 2:30 at most."_

" _So I am a little late.."_

" _No you are 45 minutes late. Don't say it was traffic like last time, you seemingly forgot we replaced your cycle!_

" _I'm not that dumb to repeat that..uh what I mean is I had to catch up on some school work" Miles sputtered._

" _I see, why is your backpack so dirty…!"_

" _Crap I really need to stop keeping the backpack near or in the bins". Miles thought before saying " I tripped and fell it was dirty behind the alley"._

" _More like slammed the muggers near it and zipped them up for the police" he finished in his mind_

" _You know Spiderman has been in the news for stopping a mugging a few blocks from here. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that right?"_

" _Shit how does she know?…."_

" _You think I don't know what is going on? I'm your mother Miles. Just how long did you think you could hide it from me?" before coming close to him and placing a hand on his face. Turning invisible looked so good now.._

" _You know your father has been talking about it him lately. He told me that since the new Spiderman has emerged he has been everywhere all the time stopping thieves muggers and apparently even told some kids that anyone can wear the mask and be a hero"..she caught Miles's eyes and continued.."wanna talk about it?"_

" _Umm..well you see the thing is..I uhh..trying new things is never too bad..._

" _Who is your trainer?" she asked_

" _Umm what?" Miles looked dumbfounded._

" _Just give me a name and address and I will go and give them a piece of my mind right now. I mean this is nuts! Every day we see you look like you have been through the ringer literally and when you come home I find blood stains, gunpowder on a clothes or a bruise or something. I mean I thought MMA was brutal but this is on another level I mean c'mon Miles. I'm thinking a part of you wants to follow in your father's footsteps am I right? "_

 _Miles was silent for a moment. He really wanted to tell his parents the truth but they had a lot on their plate right now. His uncle's death had hit his father pretty hard, outwardly he did not it but he could still catch him mourning for his death along with his mom. She meant well even Miles knew that but ever since the accelerator blew up she had been hovering around him like crazy, constantly texting him throughout the day and talking into the wee hours of the night even when there wasn't much to say. Miles dreaded the inevitable conversation about giving him space but he didn't have the energy today. It had been a long day juggling classes and being Spiderman. That meant skipping the occasional class and running out of the building at random times, however that also meant that he had to let the occasional thug slip away and today had been one of those days that apparently left a family with life threatening injuries which opened up a whole can of worms that he really needed someone to talk to._

 _Then he remembered Gwen's advice "Tell only those kind of lies that can be backed up later"._

 _He decided to go with the truth…_

" _You're right mom her name is Gwaaaaannndaaa._

 _His mom looked at him eyebrow raised " Wait her name is Gwanda"?_

 _Half- truth would be the more apt description.._

" _Ya she was born in Africa but was raised right here"_

 _He then went on to tell him the story Gwen told him in case anyone specifically asked for her but added the truth where Gwen trained her._

" _Look ma it's fine ok these past weeks have been tough for everyone but this is a healthy release for me. You know hormones and all that, you are lucky I haven't reached the rebellious phase you guys keep talking about" Miles looked on proudly before stopping at the look on her mother's face._

" _Bring her "_

" _wait what?"_

" _Well you said you guys are friends and she seems interesting. I want to meet her. Hold on she went to school with you? How old is this trainer of yours Miles"?_

" _Oh no"….." just over a year than me"_

 _She wanted to say a thousand things. Before her mama bear instincts could kick in completely she composed herself. "Calm yourself down we don't know her" she told herself before deciding to find out with only a small smile on her face._

 _Bring her to our family dinner we are having 4 days from now…"_

" _But ma she could be busy and.." before his mother cut him off._

" _That's why I am telling you 4 days in advance. Now go"_

" _She's going kill me" Miles thought_

" _If she has ulterior motives that harm our baby boy we are going to rip her to shreds and devour her" his mother's mama bear instincts growled in the back of her mind._

Present moment

" _Yeah she is definitely going_ _to kill me"_ Miles thought.

"What's wrong Miles?" Gwen asked.

"Look this is probably the worst time to bring this up but I need you to have dinner with me at my parent's house" Miles blurted out.

Peter choked on the drink he was drinking and started coughing hard before he started laughing out loud. People nearby started staring at them including a flustered and embarrassed Gwen who stared daggers at him.

"What did you just say?"

" Look before you get upset let me explain, a couple of days ago I stopped a mugging and things were dirty I mean my clothes were dirty and sticky…. I mean that happened before with blood stains, gunpowder and stuff, my mom was getting suspicious so I told her you were my trainer…".

"You do realize you blew up my cover right? Now I have to come up with something convincing enough! Your father is a police officer he is going to be there. None of these clicked in that thick head of yours? You couldn't think of anything else? she fumed at him.

" I'm sorry she caught me off guard okay I didn't think she would just invite you like that..look just consider this as a big favour okay please? I'll help you out with anything"

Gwen thought about this for a moment. They really needed to get a lead on whatever the hell was going on in their worlds. So far the only thing that could have caused something like that was the particle accelerator in Miles's world. They had to go there anyways. Miles's slip up would only cause it to delay a few hours more. Plus she really wanted to spend quiet time with him. It's why she had called him in the first place, her first real friend in a while, who was relatable not that Peter wasn't. But someone who was closer to her age. Maybe the dinner could be a good thing, dealing with the parents however…

"Fine but remember you owe me big time ok?"

" Done thanks a lot Gwen you're the best" he said before promptly giving her a hug.

 _Slurp slurp slurp_ and a loud burp suddenly broke them apart and they cleared their throats giving each other a wide berth before both of them saw Peter with a shit eating grin on his face..with mustard all over it.

" Oh I'm sorry did I ruin the moment? You know for a second there popcorn would have been nice but suddenly all this food just seemed too good to pass up so… fries?

Gwen scowled at him before saying " Let's just pay and go" and got up to pay the bill.

"Wow I thought I was moving fast with MJ, did you know it took me months to even tell aunt may that I had a girlfriend. Much less one who knew my secret. Rookie mistake disguised as a date! Dude You are a total pro at this. My man!" He held up his fist to be bumped. Only to see a t-shirt in mid air.

It would have looked like an apple topping with how much Miles was blushing before he got a control on himself and turned visible.

" Don't be ridiculous! This is just a dinner to pacify my parents mostly my mom because she got suspicious of what I do when I'm outside doing my superhero thing." He muttered

"Sure whatever you say..you dog!" "C'mon you know a part of you is really glad about this" he said before continuing,

" Be on your best behaviour Miles and remember it's about her so you be a gentleman ok " he teased in a childish voice.

Miles sat back with a loud sigh and started digging into his food waiting for Gwen to return. Truth is a part of him was looking forward to this.

They exited the café and went to a quiet desolate area before using Gwen's device to jump to Miles's world.

They did not see all the cameras in the cafe warp and twist in multiple colours before returning to normal.

" Look you guys go ahead and have a nice evening why don't I go ahead and patrol near what's left of the labs and see if anyone is working on any kind of secret project" Peter said after landing

" The security there is tighter than ever with the ongoing investigation how are you going to get past that?"

"I'll get Aunt May to give me some kind of cloaking tech to disguise myself or be less visible. It'll be fine you guys can join me when you're done.

" Be a gentleman " he mouthed to Miles before winking at him and swinging away.

 **Note:- Hey guys I'm back with another chapter. This one was more drama oriented to set up the direction of the characters that I want to go with. Thank you to the first reviewer will certainly keep your suggestions in mind as I go forward in this story and yes in due time we will visit all the universes explored in the movie. Till then enjoy and keep commenting on the quality as I am eager to improve. Thank you for giving this a chance.**


	5. Chapter 5

A loud bang suddenly filled the cool crisp evening at New York city followed the drop of a body. A scratching noise followed the escape of stray cats which was mellowed out by muffled noises dragging the victim upstairs blindfolded. On the outside the mansion looked bleak and desolate, a stark contrast to the inside filled with conference rooms and the hum drum of business as usual. People were busy signing deals, shuffling paper work, speaking to one another about finishing consignments. The upper rooms were filled with fresh food being prepared. Freshly brewed cocktails were being prepared and served all around the floor.

It would look like an extravagant office except for the fact that two strong burly men were dragging the blindfolded victim to the top floor. Despite bawling at the top of her voice no one was batting an eyelid as they knew it was business as usual. After a while she stopped struggling knowing it was pointless. They passed what seemed like a long passageway. Guards were standing all the way to the very end that opened to a different dome like entrance that led to a large room. There was a surprising lack of activity except a few tables spread out strategically to ensure business deals continued undisturbed and anonymously, there were no cameras in here as well. The guards dragged the victim all the way to the corner of the room, where the boss was sitting deep in thought. Lips tightly sealed, a serious and confident demeanour that didn't give away the confusion swirling beneath, a clawing concern as to how someone managed to infiltrate their group and tip off the police. No one knew his actual name, however his people were screened constantly. Family details, spouse, next to kin nothing was left out. He had to find out.

"Put her down".

She was forced into a chair. The blindfolds were taken off revealing a paled skin woman in her mid-late thirties, well built. The voice was hoarse when she spoke

"Please I did as I was told" she sniffed before continuing " He told me to deliver the package I didn't know what was going on. I had no idea please.. she started sniffling softly and breathing heavily, all cried out.

"Really, I must say you are a great actor, but your resolve is amazing. I hired some of my best to break this information out of you, you kept repeating the same thing. I looked you up, no immediate family, no husband and no next to kin."

"I can't kill you straight away as you are still valuable to me, or at least the information you possess.

The problem was no-one else was present when his man was apprehended, the only possible leak was the person before him, unless..

" _I'll have to risk it"_ he thought before shaking his head towards his men.

Minutes later they entered again with another gagged man his hands and legs tied behind his back. They barely managed to take of his gags before he shouted

" What the hell is going on?"

" What Is going on is I am finally getting some answers" "They were a dozen officers there when you got caught in the warehouse Max" " Our latest shipments, locations of other warehouses our distribution routes. Do you have any idea how much business this little event of yours cost me? " Give me a real reason not to shoot you both right now?"

"You sure about that?"

In a flash he was out of his restraints before swiftly knocking the two guards out with rapid blows to the heads with a hidden stick. Then he quickly dislocated the gun out of the boss's hand before pointing it at him.

" You want to kill me right" " Stop playing games and end it right now", before shoving the gun back in the boss's hand and pointing it directly at his own heart.

"Do it!, I am the best at what I do and you know it, you know damn well I can gain back the losses faster than any of the other associates." "Don't believe me… kill me now".

The boss knew Max was right, he knew he had to make a choice fast . "Tell me about her". He told her pointing to the woman.

" We met a while back we started talking coz we liked each other and that's all I'm going to say about it. You've seen her records it was squeaky clean right? She's innocent in all this.

"I'm afraid that's just your word against mine"…

Then all of a sudden the room slowly filled up with smoke. There were no windows, Max scrambled to the chair before suddenly blinded by the dense smog all around him. Two strong arms picked him up started to move swiftly across the room through to the door. He could barely make out the muffled noises before he passed out.

A minute ago all the guards and people in the top floor were quietly standing on guard now. Now all of them were scrambling to take cover but were too weak to even make sense of anything, as in their delirious state they could see a figure moving at unreal speeds swiftly knocking everyone out and just dumping them on the floor below where the rest of the folks were being cuffed by the police.

One by one the bodies were being dropped like dominoes, some with broken backs, some with bruises on the face, all knocked out cold. The commotion upstairs would have stopped had any of them been wearing masks, so they just had to stay back and watch the scene unfold all around them.

The woman came running towards them panting and out of breath along with Max. She was…between ecstatic and hyperventilation seconds after the boss's body dropped from above like.

"Oh my God he saved us, he saved me and Max did you see?, O officer thank God that monster would have killed us thank God you are here please take us away, oh please arrest them.

An officer walked up to them and said "Jesus Max does he even realize we need their statements? You know does he consider this payback for his "service?", he continued while curling his fingers.

"Seriously you guys just landed one of the biggest hits of your career and you're complaining"

"Biggest hit my ass you know the chief is going to get all the credit!"

"Not when you hand them this yourself!" Max handing him a journal.

"How the hell did he get this?"

"He broke the safe" Max shrugged. It was true it contained major business details and deals of the drug empire.

"C'mon Max let's get out of here" He understood this was her cue and followed her.

After they reached just out of the earshot. He finally spoke up.

"So am I ever going to see you again?" he asked her hoping it was true. He missed companionship of any kind. Being undercover all day meant faking everything, mannerisms, schooling your emotions being on high alert at all times. It was exhausting. He was always away from his family at all time. Romantic entanglements were out of the question he knew it, but it would be nice to have a friend.

" You know I can't Max" "The big guy won't allow it you know that right?"

" You know never thought I'd see a woman do this." " I really looked you up, even in places where people don't look and you are a ghost. No previous history no husband. " How did a girl of all places come here? And speaking of the big guy how did you manage to get his attention?"

" You're right Max you won't find me in any government file" " I'm not under anyone's jurisdiction especially when we are at war all the time with the Germans." " I'll be deployed elsewhere.. you know I have to go now...

" So I guess this is goodbye?... for now?" he said pushing trying to even get a name out of her.

She sighed giving in this time shaking his outstretched hand. "For now" she replied. "But you still have the other warehouses to take care off. Gotta keep up your cover Max".

He smirked "you're going to take care of it?"

"I already have" she replied.

His vision started blurring and before he could steady himself was knocked out cold.

The woman dragged his unconscious body near the police car before leaving some money and a note above him that said "Spider man thanks you for your service oh and these are for his medications".

She started running away before anyone could stop her. She quickly blended into the streets of New York, into the crowd, a couple of seconds later wind started to blow when a black coated arm shot an arm above the crowd and swung away towards the building before disappearing into the night amidst loud cheers.

Peter entered his apartment. He reached into his coats and pulled out the makeup the fake wig and the eye lens that died his eyes red when he was faking his helplessness. He then took out the makeup and the clothes he used as his disguise.

Shedding his coat and placing his hat on the top of the table he sighed. It had been a long day. On top of that he had to keep up his appearances and fight the guards in the corridor, well not fight so much as knock them out while their eyes couldn't even see that Spiderman had just passed them a couple of seconds ago handcuffed and blindfolded screaming like a woman all the while spreading semi-lethal amounts of aerosol sedatives stored in capsules embedded all underneath the clothes that would make them squirm a bit later. It's effectiveness lasted only for a few minutes once the catalyst sped up the reaction which he released in front of the boss. It had to be released in quantities that did not spread to the whole mansion while ensuring that Max was ok before taking him out of harm's way before he inhaled too much smoke by placing him in the floor below.

All that was left punching the guards just by running up to them!

Although if he was being honest this was something Max could have taken care of himself given sufficient time, maybe in a couple of months, however by that time the underbelly of New York would have been filled with cocaine and other forms of experimental drugs. There were two ways to do this. One was to let the problem foster and then attack as Spiderman or go right to the source.

Max was resourceful, he observed from the very beginning rising among the ranks very quickly and becoming popular at his precinct. He had shadowed him discreetly over the course of several months as soon as word got out, gained his trust and then started doing take downs of the underworld together. Peter had to be on guard at all times but he was just as relentless as Peter was about justice.

With war waging with the Nazis and the allies had their hands full Peter knew he had to clean up the streets but doing so as Spiderman was not enough, so had to create a persona where he could interact with normal people to get the job done. To infiltrate places that Spiderman or Peter Parker could not. A woman no one knew and heard off but was just as effective as the best off them. Given the sexism of the 1930's he figured it would be easier for this woman to hide behind the shadow of Spiderman as an acquaintance with no known relatives, just to edge on the side of the believable. Of course creating the records that could survive a thorough background check by a crime boss was another thing so he trusted the chief with it, with the promise that he could retire his career with the biggest take down of his life, in return he promised to behave or rather not give into his more violent tendencies... A debate about his moral compass took place but they decided to call it a truce.

Now he sat alone in his apartment fixating on his new project: rolling the colourful cube in his hand. To be honest ever since he returned from his journey from the other universe and gaining his new friends he had been opening up more and more to the idea of having other people in his life. He decided to take a chance. He wanted to tell Max that the woman and Spiderman was the same person and he the reason he came clean was he wanted more than just partnership, he wanted a friend. He decided to reach out to him and toy with the idea of revealing his secret.

He stoop and looked outside and saw the boss he just busted a while back staring back at him with a devious smile on his face. Peter reacted by instinct taking out his M1911 colt gun and started shooting at him. The guy ducked down and started running very fast, almost too fast with Peter on his tail already having emptied an entire clip on him.

Peter swung through the streets thinking how to catch him when all of a sudden he lost him in the crowd. Knowing full well the physical motions of changing one's disguise he swung his web out as far as he could on the farthest building to easily catch the guy while he was changing his look. He jumped upward and moved forward before landing in the same spot. He looked around confused and tried again with the same result, the people around him moving about as if nothing had changed.

Then he swung sideways only to land right in front of his shattered apartment window. Then he looked inside his home to see the boss standing there with the same grin on his face.

" What do you want?" How did you get out?"

The boss did not say anything except he dashed inside the house. Peter jumped over his house and landed in front of the back door and took a fighting stance.

The boss jumped out of the door and Peter swung his hand at him. It literally passed through him and he managed to run through Peter as if he wasn't even an obstacle. Peter was too stunned for a second to even register he was getting away when he saw him warp and twist with multiple colours and morph into a fully clothed man in complete black almost like a replica of him except he couldn't even see the eyes.

Peter swung fast after him but the man kept running in random directions. After chasing after him for a while Peter saw that they were essentially going in circles and visiting the same locations again and again. He decided to stop in his apartment. The man stopped running too and turned towards him.

" _ok he stopped now what do I do?"_

Peter then decided to approach him slowly " Look you're clearly not the boss are you?"

The man chose that moment to turn into the boss with the same shit eating grin on his face.

" _Perfect.."_ Peter then remembered those colours and said " are you from another dimension?" " Can you even understand me?" He then took a couple of quick steps towards the unnamed man and at that he took a couple of quick steps back too.

" Look..ugh..just don't run ok just stay there I'll be right back " Peter decided to slowly backtrack into his room looking at him in case he decided to bolt again. He quickly opened a box revealing it to be the dimension accessing device that Gwen had given him a couple of weeks ago when she was trying to access this universe.

"Look you clearly want something so work with me here ok… how did you manage to do that?" I literally jumped from one place to the next while you somehow managed to find me" Peter continued keeping the device hidden. It looked like those cylindrical guns with weird colourful buttons he saw in games played in tv..or video play or something in those giant pictures he saw plastered in the walls in Miles's universe. It really looked fun…before snapping back to the present.

"Are you from another universe?" he decided to risk it getting frustrated at the lack of response.

" Look you clearly have heightened abilities like I do and you can..a loud snap occurred before a harness released a tree trunk right at the man who to Peter's surprise ducked sideways " hear me".

"Is it the language?" once again nothing…Peter lost his patience

"Al right buddy time to send you to my friend's dimension and you will face the wrath of other Spider folks as well" before another multiple harnesses dropped all kinds of rocks and twigs around the man one after the other he was so busy ducking them that he never saw Peter shoot a web right in front of him reaching close enough and fire the device at him.

Dimensional blips started appearing all around them over and over again and a giant shield like structure momentarily formed at the exact spot where the man was standing. The light from it got brighter, suddenly he disintegrated in a ball of explosion that sent Peter flying back into his apartment breaking through his wall.

Peter groaned and rubed his head before quickly getting up ready to fight ignoring his grogginess. He then moved forward and saw a familiar standing machine…?

All Peter could make out was "Peni Parker is in danger" in it's glass like structure before he passed out.

 _Miles's universe_

Peter watched from a distance the entrance to the scene of the labs, the place sprawling with security. He decided to enter the labs discreetly. Swiftly stealing a hat, coat and a sweater he bought from his own dimension, he adjusted himself to the oversized lab coat he was wearing to enter.

" There's still some evidence left and orders have come from the precinct to collect it today" and showed the security the paperwork he stole from said victim who was gagged and unconscious, away from prying eyes.

He entered the building and took it in, much off it was still destroyed from the explosion, cracks had appeared giving the building an almost ancient look on the verge of collapse, he decided to go straight to look up the personnel history as employee testimonials did not begin yet. He looked around for any directions.

His spidey senses picked up something, a faint hint of another spider person before it tuned higher. _"are Miles and Gwen done with their dinner so fast?"_ he wondered before sprinting in the direction it came from.

After running for a minute he suddenly bumped into a small person. She spun around.

" Peni? What are you doing here? Where is your robot friend?"

" I don't know Peter, I can't find him anywhere…."

 **Note:- Hey guys me again with another chapter. So I introduced an OC Max in the Spider noir universe, his back story will be explored a bit further in subsequent chapters. Which kind of brings me to a question. Would you prefer longer chapters with more detailing to characters or shorter ones like I am writing now? Please let me know.**


	6. Chapter 6

Miles was walking alongside Gwen with a growing trepidation in his mind. He had no idea how this conversation was going to go with his parents. He kept stealing glances at Gwen hoping she would calm down eventually. She seemed lost however in her own thoughts.

Miles couldn't take it anymore and he spoke up "Can you say something please? Look I know this is unexpected and I'm really sorry for putting this on you…Ma really wants to know what I have been upto..he paused carefully choosing his next words " I know I should have been more careful with my cover.."

Gwen cut him off by saying "Look Miles I get it Ok I know what it's like keeping secrets and the extra work that goes into ensuring that it says one… but this ..It's on a whole other level that I did not anticipate. Plus your dad is a cop, I mean not that it should ever come to that but what if he catches wind of it, both of us are not going to look good. Plus I looked up Gwen Stacy in this universe, she is a science major in college here… I.." she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"What?"

"Nothing..its just that they can never know the truth now.."

"Never?".." I mean I get that I have to keep it a secret now because my dad doesn't agree completely with Spiderman efforts and my mom is well..you know but they have to know it eventually right?"

"No Miles they can't the last time that happened I almost lost my dad" she said a little more forcefully than she meant her eyes shining with tears " I…uh…I lost Peter" she said trying to compose herself. She had made peace with the fact but it still haunted her. The Peter in her world was her best friend and she would be lying to herself if she didn't have fleeting thoughts about building something more with him before it all went to hell. The wounds had healed but it still left scars in it's wake and Gwen wondered if it would ever heal completely. Her new found friends have helped but putting her walls down completely was another thing. Miles was her closest friend now… _crap he saw me crying…_

She shook herself then turned to Miles and said firmly "Imagine if someone found out about you through your mother or your father Miles and used it to lure you out. Are they worth the risk?"

Miles opened his mouth to protest but closed it quickly stunned to see such an emotional reaction from her. He knew there was more to the story and his heart went out to her. He couldn't help but wonder what she was like before the tragedy and the subsequent trauma. He shuddered at the thought of himself going through like that..his uncle.. _no not now Miles keep it together for her_. He looked at Gwen quietly sniffling and decided to change the subject.

" Needless to say I keep her in check…she was bad I'm a wreck..na na nan a uh uh.." he started to belt out a familiar tune and the beats and looked at Gwen as continued to beat with his legs and started to sway to the tune.

" You married to that or something?" "What is with you and the son…whoa..Miles what are you doing?..Miles had taken her hand and sway to the song and that made her fumble awkwardly. People looked at them thinking they were drunken teenagers having the time of their life.

Miles had managed to put a set of headphones on her and told her " the original always calms me down, but just listen to the beats of the remix beats and let it flow through you" " imagine you are playing it on the drums.." stopping just for a second to tell her before starting to dance again. Gwen looked at him questioningly before closing her eyes letting the music in. Couple of seconds later she opened her eyes and saw the cheering crowd, and the drums in front of her and the sticks in her hand. She started to play the song and move and sway her hips and then continued playing it.

"Damn you got some moves girl " Miles said cheerily not long after finding it hard to keep up with her as Gwen switched between playing imaginary drums and dancing not giving a care about who saw them.

Call it an ancient primal drive to impress the opposite sex, hormones or just a desperate need for attention depending on where you are on the tumultuous journey called puberty Miles decided to do a particularly hard move he had never done. Halfway through the step somewhere hands and legs crossed together and they were lying on the ground beside each other laughing.

"Feeling better"? Miles asked holding out a hand.

Gwen took it and stood up dusting herself off before facing Miles..standing inches from her.

"Sure…uh" was all Gwen was able to utter her eyes wide blush creeping into her face.." We should.. uh keep going.." a hint of a smirk on her face before removing her hand.

"HEY"…he said in a deep voice other hand on her shoulder before adding quickly "Yeah totally we should get it on.. I MEAN KEEP GOING…" Miles shook his head and brought his hands… his shivering shaking hands to himself, _really not the time to use your uncle's move._

Gwen let out a light chuckle and they continued walking in the direction of Miles's house in silence.

Soon they reached the house Miles rang the bell and waited. It was 2 good minutes before Gwen spoke up

" Hey Miles about before I just wanted to.." she was cut off by the door revealing Miles's mother.

 _In 1933_

Peter groaned as he moved and stilled, calling back his own training and experience he tried to keep his breathing as steady as possible trying to make sense of his surroundings while keeping his eyes closed with his super senses. There was a fire burning near him and simultaneously a smell of a familiar couch and the sound of a wall clock nearby.

" _Ok so I'm in my house"_ he thought before trying to move his arms and legs and saw that he could. He was free to move. Slowly he opened his eyes and startled back falling on his face seeing the familiar screen with it's back to him flashing all sorts of weird symbols and bright lights. Then it turned towards him. Peter sat up and looked at it silently for several moments not really sure what to say or do.

" Common after effects of an explosion are dizziness, severe headache due to concussive noise or direct/indirect head trauma"…..

Peter spoke up " Look I'm fine what uh.. what are you doing here? " How did you get here?"

"Peni Parker is in danger" the screen flashed again.

" Why..What happened to her?"

At that the machine decided to play a series of flashes which showed Peni following a similar black clad figure along with it's companion from it's point of view. As they reached an abandoned building. The minute they entered the screen went blank and then Peni was standing staring at the screen. Peter noted the time on the screen was also ahead by 30 minutes but decided to question it later. He also saw as it reached out to Peni but it's metallic arms shot through her and then..Peni went right through it's body. Looking here and there it was obvious in the screen that it could see her but Peni could not see it. Then it tried touching and throwing various things at Peni to get her attention but she ducked, jumped and blasted through all of them. It was weird for Peter as though he was watching a colourful action flick in a futuristic future in a futuristic television, which it kind off was.

Then he saw as Peni made her way back to her base of operations with absolutely no idea that her then invisible companion has followed her. She started working slowly twisting nobs and putting together a device that would help find him. The footage of her working continued for hours..literally.

Peter looked on as 2 hours passed " wait so are we going to watch her working the whole time?" " Can you get to the danger part? " I don't mean to sound insensitive but this is getting kinda tedious..

A thumbs up appeared and then the images of Peni's working started moving really fast to Peter's surprise. "wait stop" and then the images stopped. "How did you? Never mind..uh continue". He vaguely remembered something about playing super fast videos in Miles's world..it had a name.. something tube in the handheld phone or tv he wasn't sure what it was that everyone in Miles's world were running their thumbs over.

" _Man the future sure is interesting"_ he thought before focusing on the images in front of him.

The images slowed down and then Peter saw that Peni activated the device she was working on and she looked at a holographic screen where several markers appeared on the screen all showing different globes?..Then he realized it showed the different earths. Peni chose Miles's earth. She took a lot of extra security measures to ensure the device kept updating her, She then collected her dimension hopping device and jumped through a portal, her companion following her but at the same time another portal opened just before it could reach her and the familiar shield like structure engulfed the screen and Peter saw himself being reflected back. A few hours ago barely able to stand as he collapsed on the screen.

" Ok hold on I have a million questions" Peter said

 _In Miles's world_

Miles watched nervously as Gwen and his mom started a staring contest, It felt like hours but in truth it was more like 20 seconds, like wild animals testing each other out ready to pounce at any second.

"So Miles good to see you made it..I thought you would be busy with your… I don't believe we've met but Miles told me a lot about you Gwanda" his mother directed the last bit at Gwen stretching out a hand to greet her. Gwen took it gracefully and offered a smile that turned forced as she realized his mom was trying to squeeze her hand tightly. As if she caught on immediately Miles's mom loosened her grip and let go of her hand trying to silence the mama bear instincts screaming in the back of her head to devour her!

" It's uh nice to meet you too mam, Miles mentions you a lot"

"Oh that's so sweet honey I only hope he remembers I mean well" Miles sighed before she continued "You know when Miles told me someone was training him you are not quite what I had pictured in mind"

" Ok let's continue the interrogation inside Ma" his mom scowled at him at that and Gwen expression darkened a bit before becoming calm at that.

" Oh of course honey come in hope you're hungry I've cooked a feast. Your father's inside getting ready Miles."

" C'mon Gwen" Miles lead her through the stairs into the living room, A faint noise indicated Miles's dad was showering. Seeing no one around Gwen took the opportunity to smack his head.

"What exactly did you tell her about me?" " Did you learn nothing about covering your tracks?"

"Look it's hard ok and I am getting better at it couple of days ago only my backpack was dirty nothing more, and my hair was dirty too, you try stopping a mugging and then come out of it looking squeaky clean"

" That's the thing Miles you can't be squeaky clean, you have to clean yourself up and look normal not just act normal before you present yourself to someone, she probably thinks I get a kick out of hurting you which I really might the next time we train together"

Miles shuddered at that before deciding to enter the kitchen to help her mom.

Gwen took in the living room and at that moment Miles's dad walked in wearing a blue shirt and a pair of navy blue trousers. He smiled as he saw her and extended a hand.

"Hello I'm Miles's father Jefferson you must be Gwanda"

" Yes sir it's nice to meet you Miles tells me you are an inspiration to him he's a nice..nice guy."

" Well I'm glad to hear that why don't you join us ? Hope you like fried chicken, We got mashed potatoes, salad. You know Miles mentioned something about a girl he liked I must say I am intrigued"

Gwen's eyes were wide open as she took in his words. " Chicken yes I love it all that flavours with greens it's practically my food..my diet you know why don't you tell me something about your work sir" she managed to stumble out.

A drop of a plate and the fumbling of feet revealed Miles coming into the living room "Dad need your help a bit"

"Sure son"... "we'll talk at dinner" he smiled at her before joining his wife and son in the kitchen.

" Will you two stop ganging up on her?" Miles fumed at his parents while his dad was genuinely surprised his mom had a pensive look on her face.

" So is this the girl you like?" " She seems nice, why don't you join her"

"Honey this is the girl that has been training her", both parents used voices what they thought were whispers but actually were loud enough for Gwen to hear.

"Please guys just go easy on her" Miles sighed knowing Gwen could hear everything.

"Dad did you have to mention that to her?" he said hoping his dad wouldn't actually make him say he liked her.

"Oh c'mon it's obvious that she does too son" his dad winked at him. " But seriously how did you guys meet? And how does she train you exactly?"

"Let's ask her then, son you take the chicken your dad and I will come up with the rest"

Gwen of course could hear everything courtesy of super senses and did not know what to feel about the whole situation. She knew that Miles's parents reaction was completely normal in a way. She knew that Miles and her were good friends, they got along well and she really appreciated Miles trying to stand up to him. What scared her was the familiarity, the closeness, the obvious protectiveness over Miles. It reminded her of what she had with her dad before becoming Spider-woman, before she started to carve her own path that nearly cost her dad's life and the life of her best friend Peter in her world…and now here she was, her dad was away on business and she truly felt alone in her world. Miles was the closest to she felt in a long while, Peni could have been another one but she was busy with her missions. Part of her was screaming at her to storm out of it to not fall into the same trap but the other was prodding her along, to give these nice people a chance. She was confused, scared and a bit overwhelmed at the same time.

Miles walked in bringing her out of her thoughts. " Hey you alright?" " Look I tried to tell them to go easy on you.. you got your story straight right?"

"Huh…sure..uh… what?.. yeah I do…we do" Gwen replied with a smile.

They all started eating dinner spending a quiet couple of minutes, the only sounds being made was plates being passed around and the contact of utensils on it.

Gwen decided to break the ice.

" The food is great uh.. mam"

" It's Mrs. Morales honey don't worry about it, you like it huh? That's nice you seem to be keeping up with Miles in the appetite area, despite being so lean and fit, why don't you tell me your secret? " she uttered in one breath earning a " So much for being subtle" look from Miles's dad and a "seriously" look from Miles.

Gwen brushed it off giving a nervous laugh.

"Ok my name is Gwanda, but you already know that I am a student at Miles's school. I live with my foster mom May. My parents died in an accident when I was about 11 years old and that is when she took me in and I have lived with her ever since", Gwen swallowed a piece of broccoli, glanced a look at Miles who encouraged her to continue with the story with just enough details that wouldn't raise many questions for now. She knew Mrs. May would go along with it so Gwen decided to risk it, they had prepared for all eventualities they could think of even the obvious one that came along with it.

"Wait May? As in Peter Parker's aunt, you are the foster cousin of the late Spiderman?" Miles's dad asked surprised.

Gwen nodded slowly, lip quivering, mind running plenty of scenarios of how this story could backfire as she tried to keep a straight face.


	7. Chapter 7

"I was taken in not long after Peter revealed his secret to mom. It was a lot of late nights where mom had nothing to do and I guess you could say I got lucky. She wanted to help in her own way and raising me did exactly that and yeah I am happy"

Gwen decided to stop here and started to eat figuring she would fill the details on the story based on the questions asked. Creating a fake guardian meant a lot of other paperwork that she wasn't prepared for.

Jefferson spoke up "What about your relatives? "…"I apologise that's probably a bit too personal" he backtracked noticing the look on her face.

"No it's fine Mr. Jefferson but mom" Gwen flinched a bit using that reference for aunt May but thankfully no one noticed " found me on the streets, I ran away after everything that happened and lived on the streets for a while. I had to survive out there on my own until she found me. "Since I had no one I had to learn to fight to survive out there" She said pointing outside and looking at Miles as she said this indicating what he needed to do if he wanted to get better.

"My hobbies were picked up in an unusual manner "I picked up my flair for music using every day items people throw away and watching a lot of street performances, imitating and learning from them" she said with a smile, knowing it was true. It was one of her fondest memories, her parents didn't exactly disapprove any of her hobbies but did not exactly participate. She was proud of the fact that she had learnt something completely on her own.

"Miles and I are into street graffiti. He's really great at it although you should really tone down on the graphic detailing on some of your works Miles, I understand curiosity get's the better of you but you need .."

"Dad are you serious right now?" Miles nearly spat out the food cutting him off. "How do you know about that? I thought I hid that perfectly" he mumbled quietly to himself.

"Yeah I'm not going to tell you that but I want you to know that you can come to us anytime you're feeling confused..or overwhelmed about any of that stuff okay.."

Miles did not know what was more mortifying, the sudden direction this conversation had taken or the sex talk he heard some seniors being on the receiving end off. He glanced up and saw that Gwen was watching him with too much glee on her face.

" Yes Miles you have to learn to do things responsibly you know some of us aren't going to be there all the time" his mom interjected . "That's nice have you thought about building a future in it?"

"What do you mean?"

" I mean career wise have you thought about it?"

" Oh I uhh..not really I mean I play from time to time maybe something in that direction but nothing really set in stone, I'm still trying to figure it out"

Mrs. Morales really wanted to probe more and make her talk about her life and how she and Miles interact on a regular basis but the subject of her consternation had shared more about her life than she gave credit for. She knew there was more to the story than Gwanda was letting on and she wondered how much Miles was really aware of that fact. She thought about taking another tact without appearing too intrusive when Jefferson took it for her.

" That's rough surviving on the streets like that. You are one tough lady". "But I have to ask what was it like living with the Spiderman?"

"He was busy a lot of the time but he always tried to make time for me,. He enhanced my fighting techniques and taught me to care about other people in ways that mattered. I mean being a superhero is tough and there were a lot of times when we wondered if he would return at all. There were these two sides of him that he always trying to reconcile. But he was a nice…sibling to me." She paused cringing at that, "When he passed away I did not want the extra attention and told them to keep me out of the story".

"That's understandable, grief is something that is tough to deal with, I'm still trying to figure out who was behind Aaron's death. The unusual costume, the bullet, I couldn't really find anything in his apartment." Mrs Morales reached out and grabbed his hand knowing it had been hard all this while. "But I'm really proud of the way you're handling all of this" "Son you sure found a keeper here." He finished smacking bumping Miles's elbow.

" I don't want to feel helpless again dad. I want to be able to defend myself and Gwanda is helping me do that" " I'm getting faster, stronger and thanks to her vast knowledge and the training I get the real deal. You guys will never have to worry about me again." He said looking at his mom and wondering exactly how many times his dad will embarrass him in front of his friends.

"You know we have training in the academy as well. There are programs for youngsters who are interested. Why not try there?

" I want to do this my own way dad. "Besides who knows one day I can take you in a fight one day dad"

"Oh that's how it is big guy? Alright I'll bite. " You get a couple of weeks to set this one straight. Then I'm coming for you". He mimicked in a deep voice for effect and started to laugh.

Miles however was reminded of the night when Prawler, his uncle held him hostage on the roof of Aunt May's house at that voice. Ready to kill him in a strike. His mom's voice brought him back.

" Oh like you will hurt our son dear" "It's bad enough Miles got bruises because of this. Look all I'm saying is tone it down a little that's all nothing too violent and serious"" This city already has it's share of security problems with the kinds of villains it faces on a daily basis and your dad gives me enough nightmares as it is."

"C'mon you know it's part of my job and plus the new Spiderman has been working around the clock actually reducing our workload."

"Still it's just bothers me ok just" ..she sighed taking a deep breath "just make sure you are safe, and that goes for you too young man."

"All right that's enough serious talk for dinner". "Change the subject please"

Gwen sat back in relief. More or less it had gone the direction she had hoped. Yes she knew she could have made up fake people with fake identities. But creating a whole backstory for them, that's another thing. Initially that is what she had thought would be good. But with the next big threat always looming around the corner that would mean unexplained disappearances and with whatever the hell was going on currently who knew for how long?. They would need all the allies they can get. This story mostly brings people in the fold who could cover for them. Who knew about the multiverse and those who they could trust on to protect their loved ones lest they failed to do so. Granted only aunt May was the in the list but it could be increased with time. Of course she left out Mary Jane of this universe from the equation for now, they could worry about her when it came to it knowing she kept Peter's secret in whatever world they were in. They will have to figure it out as they go. This was the only advantage this story had over made up strangers given that they were lying to people Miles had faith in. She realised as soon as Miles slipped up that they couldn't come up with something 100 percent fool proof that quickly. They would have to talk to aunt May on the way over. Honestly this was mostly Miles's idea, Gwen was scared of the possibility of more people getting hurt in the process, but she accepted it as is for now.

Meanwhile in the lab Peni recapped the entire story to Peter from the appearance of the men adorned in black and to the disappearance of his partner. They also went through employee personnel and history to find any known associates of Kingpin who could be involved in this. They couldn't find anything or anyone on them than the ones already under trial, of course given his reputation in the city that was obvious but it seemed someone had taken extra precautions to ensure that nothing could be traced back to them. Bypassing the security was a matter of hacking into it which was easy for Peni, keeping up appearances however..was another thing. Something about research students being sent to various parts of the city to discuss the aftermaths of unethical and illegal practices in the name of progress. She was a student after all!

Peter surprised himself by actually managing to keep up with the onslaught of questions, including some of the technicalities of the legal system and aspects of forensics which was fine considering that was his day job a while back. However his multi-decade experience in cuffing criminals probably gained him legal knowledge that paid off considering some of the other people he ran into who tried to initiate conversations with him. It was highly possible they did not know squat about the law! He wasn't going to stick around long enough to find out.

They collected all the information they could find before hastily making an exit.

 _In 1933_

" I don't understand something, if she was not able to see you how am I seeing you?" Peter asked confused lighting a match. Immediately he was wet with water dripping down his face. Hot air started blowing in his face and he was lifted and placed near the fireplace.

"Uh..thanks but that doesn't answer my question"

Peni's companion immediately made an emoji with a shrug appear on it's screen.

"Ok" he reached out and touched it's surface and found that he could. Considering what he just experienced moments ago he figured maybe this was another illusion or something but then it wasn't making him run around in circles aimlessly. In the off chance that this indeed was Peni's companion then both of them needed to get to Miles's world immediately. He made a decision.

" Alright stay put I'm going to go see a friend and be right back. We'll get Peni back uh don't worry. Just relax for a while".

"Where are you going?" the screen flashed.

" I told you it's a friend don't worry about me stay here and do not leave the house. My creator probably had a cruel sense of humor so as you can see there is a distinct lack of colours around here. Just stay here and wait for me. Ok?"

Another thumbs up emoji.

Peter turned around and entered his room. He placed the dimension hopping device back in the box. Carrying it with him he started swinging in the direction Max's house.

Max was tending to his injuries by himself. Placing a medicinal ointment on the bruise he looked at himself in the mirror. He was tired and honestly just wanted to go to rest but the day's events kept playing through his head. He wanted to know why the woman wouldn't reveal herself to him. He set up an entire account for her that checked out, vouched for her personally all so that he could gain access to the boss himself, who was being transported to the prison now. Still he could not even get a name. He was authorized a name by the big guy to give to the dealers but he knew it was fake. He was frustrated and a bit angry too. How much will it take gain someone's trust? How much will he have to give for others to know that he is worth it? It had been more than a dozen missions together with Spiderman. He knew this was the first time that Spiderman worked with someone this closely for so long. All he wanted was a sign, a gesture something that would prove that he was valued.

A loud thud right outside and two knocks on his door followed by another loud thud right outside alerted him. He looked at the clock. It was post 11:30 P.M. _"This is fast even for him. 2 missions in 1 night?"_ he thought before exiting the house.

" Wow Spiderman so soon? Aren't you are the one saying we need to rest after our battles" Max said outside staring at the standing figure of Spiderman with a giant box behind him looking rather eclectic. _" Patriotic music would look so good on him now"_. he thought.

" I need your help, I'll be away for a while I need you to look out over the city especially follow up on the rest of the warehouses".

"How long will you be gone?"

Peter thought about it for a second. He had taken a detour just to make sure the boss was actually being transported into the prison. But he had no idea what to make of the situation at hand. He decided to be honest.

"I don't know "

" That's surprising coming from you, ok I'll do my best. Where will you go? I could be useful if you take me"

"No I can't this is something I have to deal with on my own".

"Why? I have proven useful to you multiple times remember including tonight? What could have possibly happened for you to go alone on this now."

" Because you have a mission here remember, you need to get back undercover"

Max wanted to argue but Spiderman was right. The mission was not over yet.

"Can you at least tell me where you are going?" " How do I contact you if I need you here?"

Peter sighed. He knew this was a ploy to get more information out of him. He jumped and landed in front of him.

" You've seen what I can do right? You know that there is more to this world out there. Science beyond your imagination, events that happen which are considered impossible."

Max nodded unsure where this was going.

"I won't be on this planet" Peter said.

" What? You are leaving…earth? How? Wait, are there beings from other planets coming here…" Max kept rambling in shock. Peter raised a hand to stop him.

"Honestly I don't know, that is what I intend to find out"

"Wait wait hold on if this is a threat then we need to alert the chief at least let him know about it"

Peter walked up to him and said " Under no circumstance will you tell anyone what I just said to you here?. Not until I can find more information"

"So that's it you're going away to an unknown place, I don't know when you will be back. What happens to the city?"

" That's where you come in right now the drug cartel is the biggest street threat we have, you need to coordinate with the right officers and the chief to contain it. I'm trusting you with this Max" Peter took a deep breath and pulled out the wig, makeup and other prosthetics and gave it to him.

" The woman and I are the same person Max, I adopted this persona to blend in the crowd and interact with the police identify threats, details I couldn't have as Spiderman and to see how you react to it. You are the only one who knows this now Max. I understand if this upsets you and you have every right to be angry with me so take this time to process it. I know without a doubt you'll make the right choice"

Max was too stunned to speak.

" Take care Max" Peter said jumping far away from Max's field of vision.

Max just stood staring into the night, his mind racing with thoughts. He felt betrayed, but he knew that Spiderman wouldn't just reveal such a secret to anyone. He slowly entered his house placing the tools near his bed and lay down conflicted knowing sleep would evade him tonight.

 _In Miles's world_

Peter and Peni just managed to exit with all the evidence they could in their hands. They had specs of the accelerator, details of contacts of anyone who was associated with Kingpin. Once they were at a safe distance Peter asked.

" So he just disappeared after you chased down the those men in the building?"

"Yes the weird thing is my equipment picked up signatures of his presence in all the universes we came from, I don't know how that's possible."

"are you sure your equipment wasn't malfunctioning?"

Peni through him an annoyed look before replying " I designed devices so we could communicate between dimensions easily, I designed him as well do you really think I haven't double checked everything?"

"Scientists make mistakes too Peni some of my greatest nemesis were geniuses who made mistakes with their inventions."

" are you implying I am like that Peter?"

" No it's just..never mind ok if you are right then where is he in this world?"

On cue a brightly coloured portal opened in front of them. A wind starting flowing and Peter stepped out along with Peni's companion. " I believe you guys were looking for this". Peter pointed at it.

" _How does the wind start flowing every time he arrives"_ the other Peter thought. "Hey Peter nice to see you again. Wait How did he end up in your world?"

"Who?"

"Him of course"

"Since when do machines have genders? How do you even know it's a guy? I haven't heard it speak yet."

Political correctness did not exist back then so Peter's reaction was probably normal Peni thought but that doesn't mean she was not going to jump in his defence.

"He has feelings, emotions and you've had conversations with him so that makes him as conscious as a human being so don't call him " it".

The newly arrived Spiderman looks at Peni and her companion " Ok that is not even in the top 3 confusing things to ponder about today's events so I'm going to table that for now"

"How did he end up with you?" Peni asked.

"So you can see him now too?" Spider noir asked suspicion raised.

"Yeah" she said and then he proceeded to tell everything that happened.

 **Note:- Hey so every time Spider noir and Spiderman are in the same room together I will call them by their comic book names respectively. Enjoy**


	8. Chapter 8

Gwen was having a rather pleasant time once the discussion shifted to Miles and his family's stories. It lifted the otherwise sombre tone of the evening, one conversation swiftly leading to the next. She was finally able to let her guard down even though it was temporary for now. She was fascinated and a bit sad at the same time, reminiscing her time before Spider woman before it all started…

 _7 year old Gwen was playing with a pair of discarded drumsticks trying to match the beats of the song that was blazing in the old Walkman. She was completely in the zone trying to capture the rhythm, switching between tapping lightly and full on beating on her tiny study table. Her social science book was on the table, she had an assignment the next day and it was almost dinner time. Her dad promised her that if she finished it early they could stay up an hour later than usual to play. But that seemed just too far away. So she started to play blissfully unaware that the noise cancelling headphones while effective for ears doesn't quite block out your activities no matter how you place it in front of the door! Her dad was on the other side shaking her head and laughing not sure what to do._

 _He knocked loudly. The noises stopped for a moment before resuming again. He knocked again with more force and moments later a tiny face appeared about four feet off the ground eyes impossibly innocent and wide open with a hint of fear in them._

" _Daddy always tells me I'm cute so maybe if I look the part he won't scold me ,everybody likes cute things.." little Gwen thought as she waited for a response. Her dad sighed and slowly knelt down and picked her up in his arms._

" _So what were you doing?" he asked entering the room and taking a quick scan around._

" _I was uhh cleaning look I made the bed and cleared out my room" she said ignoring the fact that it was already clean before her last minute efforts._

" _I see you did a fine job at that. Did you finish your assignment?"_

" _uhh yes?" she replied meekly._

" _Gwen"_

" _I was going to do it but I wanted to clean so that we could have fun later" technically not a lie just not the truth, she knew the consequences of lying._

 _He sighed deeply knowing she was smart sometimes a bit too much for her own good._

" _Ok well after dinner you are going straight to bed after finishing your assignment". "No staying up after hours tonight"_

" _That's not fair." She protested._

" _Of course it's fair we made a deal remember. You finish your assignment on time and we both play together. You didn't do it so no play"_

" _And what is this?" he said pulling out a dangling wire that she thought was hidden and the Walkman along with it. "Why is this here then if you were cleaning?"_

" _I didn't lie…" she tried knowing she had been caught._

" _I know you didn't sweetie but why not finish your assignment first? I know you're really good at them._

" _But it's so boring, I get the names mixed up all the time. The teacher scolds me a lot saying I am not good enough. Why does she make me do it if I don't like it?"_

 _He paused for a moment, considering his response. "Gwen sometimes you see me return home late from work real late into the night?_

 _She nodded_

" _Sometimes you see me speak real funny too the next day?"_

" _Your spit was all over the bed sheets like I do when I sleep" she remembered with a laugh._

" _Yeah I was really tired but I still was up for you and for myself" "Do you know why?"_

" _because you love me?"_

" _Yes of course I do and there is one more reason. Guess?"_

 _She shrugged not really getting it._

" _I hated staying late night after night at work but I did it anyways so I could spend more time with my favourite little girl. Doing what I didn't like was good for me because it allowed me to spend a few extra hours with you the next day which I love to do."_

 _He settled her down in his lap and looked her straight in the eyes._

" _Gwen there will be times in life where you have to do things you hate, or meet people you don't like in order to do the things you love just like I do. I know you don't like doing it but you do them anyways and remember that the good in your life is around the corner. These events or things that are in the way like an obstacle._

" _Ostacle? What does that mean?"_

" _It's called Obstacle…Objects that come in your way that try to stop you. Do you understand?_

" _I think so. But my teacher is always mean with me telling me I'm no good."_

" _Do you believe you're no good?"_

" _No I'm your good girl Daddy you always tell me that plus the other teachers like me. I'm not good at social science._

" _Well then what's your obstacle?"_

" _Social Science"_

" _and what do you do with them?"_

" _you go through them. But what good will happen if I do my assignment?"_

" _You said you're teacher told you were no good. You can prove her wrong by taking extra care and doing the work properly, imagine how much she'll like you when she sees your hard work. Don't you want that?"_

" _Do you really think she will like me?"_

 _Her Dad kissed her on the cheek and said "I know she will" and gave her a hug." I'll help you with your work"._

" _and then can we play an extra hour after that ?" she said excitedly_

" _No not today as you broke the deal.." seeing her face drop he followed it with "How about tomorrow we do something special after school?"_

 _Gwen cheered up at that, and launched herself at her dad's arms. "Thank you daddy. I love you so much"_

" _I love you too sweetie" her dad hugged her back tightly knowing this was a tough conversation they just had and one of many to come. Even though her little girl was smart for her age he knew they would be having many variations of this talk in the future. But he knew it would be worth it. He actually knew her teacher and knew that she pushed her students a bit hard who showed potential but slacked off. He decided to have a talk with her about praising Gwen from time to time. Positive reinforcement was important too._

" _Can we get ice-cream?" Gwen asked a little too sweetly for his dad's liking voice muffled through the fabric on his shoulder . He sighed and rolled his eyes at the heavens knowing that tone of voice that she uses to milk a good moment at times. He just hugged her tighter.._

Gwen continued to nod at something Jefferson was saying while replaying the memory in her head. It seemed silly in foresight but it was a lesson her dad had instilled in her that helped her journey as Spider woman. This tightly knit family was what a large part of Gwen craved before her losses. She knew that the lie they had crafted had every possibility to cause unforeseen consequences but she had to hope that it would be worth it, the people in front of her would be worth it.

"Btw Miles what about that time you got your hand stuck to a girl's head right in the middle of the hall? "Jefferson whispered to his son bringing Gwen back to the present. "Couple of students were talking about it when I visited the school? What's that about?" he continued quietly thinking she couldn't hear him.

Miles froze as he looked at Gwen expression mirrored on her face. But she schooled it deciding to have some well-deserved fun.

"Yeah Miles what was that about? "You have a bit of a reputation of a klutz at school ever since" she said with a devious smirk in her face.

He stared daggers at her before replying "Yeah well I kinda had adhesive left over from Chemistry lab so.."

"Well I heard the same story too Mr. Jefferson apparently the girl had to cut the side of her hair" Gwen finished tucking her hair over the spot said shaving was done.

Miles sighed loudly rubbing his hand over his face. Then he had an idea. He could play this game too.

"Actually the girl still talked with me after that. Can you believe it dad? Apparently she couldn't resist my charms. You must have also heard about that too right Gwanda?"

Her expression immediately changed. _Is he seriously trying to flirt with me?_ She thought before adopting a neutral face. Oh she wasn't going down that easily.

"Well it's possible but you should know that there are other guys she talks to as well so she might have just taken pity on you".

"Oh I don't know she seemed pretty into me. Plus I heard she prefers to keep to herself so I must have been a catch for her to talk to me."

"In your dreams Miles!" and then Jefferson ruined the moment.

"Actually I also heard those guys use some not ok words to describe her. Miles anytime those frat boys give you a hard time you tell me ok. The police knows a thing or two about dealing with bullies and that goes for you too Gwanda. I'm sure Spiderman must have taught you well but sometimes you have to intimidate them without creating a scene.

Mrs. Morales then spoke up "Alright who is hungry for desert? Jefferson could you help me with the pudding?".

"Sure" he replied before following her into the kitchen

"It was a great dinner Mrs. Morales I really enjoyed it." Gwen said through gritting teeth, just as the door closed she kicked Miles under the table harshly.

" Ow!..what was that for?"

"Who are these boys Miles that your dad was talking about? and what the hell was that about _she seemed into me_ ?

"You were having a good time mocking me so I decided to have fun. What's wrong with that?"

"I..you that was not ok Miles you can't just hit on anyone you fancy. There's something called consent."

"Yeah well friends don't just mock you in front of your parents on that level. Where's my consent huh?"

She huffed and sat back

Meanwhile in the kitchen Mrs. Morales started preparing the pudding and serving it in small bowls quietly. Jefferson knew something was bothering her but he waited knowing she hated prolonged silence.

"You could at least pretend to not be happy about this" she spoke softly

"Why don't you like her? She opened up about the most difficult aspects of her life, voluntarily. She answered any questions we asked even though it must have been hard on her. This is the first time we met her what more do you want dear?

"Exactly doesn't her story seem too easy to you? Too fabricated? C'mon you're a cop clearly you must have picked up some sign.

"Honey if she fabricated it why would she chose the most famous superhero whose private life is open for all to see to be her own foster brother? That would make it easier to catch her. What's this really about? So they spar together. Is it that bad?"

"Oh fine detective you caught me" she replied exasperated. " Can't you direct that creative cop thinking towards our son's safety and who he hangs out with?"

"Ok you are sounding paranoid. Plus Miles is a teenager now he's going to want to explore on his own, meet new people his own age. You don't want to become the uncool mom now do you coz I already am the cool dad." He finished with a shit eating grin on his face.

"Wipe that smirk off your face and of course I want to be the cool mom as well. " It's just with the strange occurrences in the city and the particle accelerator explosion. I..I want us all to be safe. Plus she gives him bruises. Not to mention blood stains

" I know but that was one time. They have been careful since then"

"Still I don't trust her completely. I'm going to give her a piece of my mind.

"No.." he started to protest

"After we are done I'll talk to her separately and gently. Don't worry it'll be fine." She finished.

They proceeded to have dessert with Gwen throwing a scowl or two at Miles but he chose to ignore it for now.

After finishing dinner Miles went to help with the dishes with his dad and Mrs. Morales gestured Gwen to follow her into Miles's room where they could have privacy.

After walking around for a while sat down beside her and asked. " I have been thinking about all night what I am going to say to you, and this is me being as delicate as possible. So here it is. From what you have told us you have been through quite a lot and still manage to stay a positive person, and I admire you for that. Having said that I am Miles's mother and I have to protect my son, so I am going to ask you a couple of things. Is that ok with you?"

Gwen nodded unsure where this was going.

Mrs. Morales brought out unwashed clothes of Miles' each of which had gun powder , blood stains and a small blotch of webbing in them. She pointed to each of them saying "can you explain all of this?"

Thankfully she had prepared for this scenario.

"Peter used to have a training simulator in his base, where we prepare for all kinds of scenarios that involve punching bags made of blood and spider webbing"

" and you shoot each other with actual guns " Mrs. Morales finished with alarm.

"Not each other, there was a brief period of time when Peter had difficulty accessing his powers for reasons he didn't know , he realised the importance of it so we have a shooting range as well where we can practice."

"What about the bruise he sported on his face?"

"Well we try to be careful not to go overboard but in the beginning he really couldn't defend himself. I accidentally punched him too hard, sorry about that." She finished meekly.

"Did he approach you for this? I mean how did all this even begin?"

" We met and started talking about interests and he mentioned something his loss. I guess you can say that I don't like seeing someone helpless so I volunteered." She said maintaining eye contact with Mrs Morales without blinking. She had to believe Gwen was telling the truth which in this instance was.

"Ok one last question and I'll stop" she took a deep breath and asked " What are your intentions towards Miles?

Gwen frowned and replied much more firmly " Mrs. Morales I just revealed intimate personal tragedies of my life, details I never tell anyone much less on a first meet. I consider him one of my closest friends and he has nothing but high praise for both you and Mr. Jefferson which is why I even considered coming to this dinner. I understand if you don't trust me and that's fine. But I will never harm him or anyone intentionally."

Mrs. Morales wasn't expecting these words, she honestly thought she would be straight to the point like all night but this response was different. Gwen continued.

"Miles is my closest friend and if he is hesitant to share something with you, try looking at it from his perspective maybe it'll help.

"Is the interrogation over Ma or can we get going?" an annoyed voice asked through the door.

The other side of the door Miles dad also had a similar discussion with Gwen with his dad including and once again an embarrassing one about hormones and feeling things differently and whether he liked Gwen or not and something about " Locker room talk". He said that it was a father son bonding moment but to Miles it was just torture.

" Alright it's pretty late c'mon I'll drop you Gwen you don't have to go alone"

Before she could even protest Jefferson shut her down.

"It's no trouble and I insist"

Gwen decided to go along with it

She said goodbye to Miles and his mom and decided to deal with the real issue in the morning as they were no urgent messages from Peter yet.

Meanwhile Peni was scanning her robot for irregularities using some equipment she had brought with her. She was confused and scared. Why would he be invisible at one point and then become visible again? She was planning on inserting the cloaking mechanism on him at some point in the future but someone beat her to it. According to Peter's accounts and Spider noir's stories it has to be someone with serious money, tech and resources. But who and why?. Her detector showed that his companion was present In all the universes she had visited till now. How was that even possible?

They were all in Peter's basement in this world. Peter was talking to MJ on the phone while Peter noir was reviewing all the research they had found in the lab rolling his cube in his hand. There were thousands of scientists listed as making a contribution in some form or the other to the particle accelerator. Each had published work to their name. May was with him putting the names in a database that matched keywords in a database that would spit out any other projects of a similar nature like that of the particle accelerator.

" It's called a Rubik's cube you know."

" What?" Peter noir looked up

" The thing you're rolling around in your hand, it's a Rubik's cube" May said.

"Oh I see uhh what do you with it? It's really great to look at and I know all the colours now but I couldn't figure it out"

She smirked and took the cube and frowned.

"Wait a minute this is mine. Did you take this the last time?"

"Yeah well you didn't really notice it's presence" he shrugged.

She solved it in a matter of minutes before giving it back to him.

Peter looked at it and saw all the colours at each side being the same…he didn't like it and frowned. He quickly changed it back.

May smiled at the almost child like behaviour and suggested "Try it"

" Try what?"

"Solve it, make each side a single colour."

" Oh I don't like it, makes it seem too monotone, orderly, I like it multi-coloured makes It seem..I don't know..not dull and boring.

May nodded understanding completely as it was her life after Spiderman died. That and overwhelming grief and loss. Briefly after she discovered the multiverse and it's occupants who had landed here. The grief was still there and they couldn't completely replace her nephew but atleast now she wasn't alone. She only hoped it would last.

"I know the feeling, you can keep it but next time you take something from someone ask."

" I told Miles I was keeping it right before the accelerator thing was about to explode and kill us all. If I feel like taking something under lesser life threatening circumstances I'll be sure to ask them."

 _Wow this one has a lot of sass like my Peter did."_ She thought as she went back to her search with a smile

Meanwhile the other Peter was trying to convince MJ to come to this universe for her safety until they could figure out their next course of action.

" Peter what about my job? My friends everything. I can't just drop everything and come there."

" You do realize that there are people literally moving space and time for their own schemes. At least when you are here I can protect you."

" I can take care of myself"

"We also have 4 other superheroes here as well"

"You know I hate it when you sound logical. That's my job remember?"

"Is that a yes?"

"Fine how long?"

"The weekend at least and possibly a couple of days beyond that"

"One date and you're asking me to move in with you? Where is the old run away from commitment Peter" she teased.

"you're never letting that down huh" Peter sighed.

"Not in the near future Spiderman, I'll be there in a few hours" MJ cut the call.

Then the camera feed revealed Gwen and Jefferson showing up in front of May's house. May opened the door surprised to see Miles's father there. Then Gwen ran up to her and gave a hug whispering "just play along" in her ear.

"Hey mom I'm back sorry I'm a bit late, lost track of time having dinner with Miles's parents. This is his dad Mr Jefferson.

" It's an honour and my great privilege to finally meet the person who raised Spiderman". Jefferson held out his hand.

May quickly recovered from her shock and schooled her features before returning the handshake.

" Well thank you and you didn't have to bring her Mr. Jefferson it's quite late. You want to come in for coffee or something with us?"

"No I'm afraid I have to get going but I would love to do it some other time. You know what anytime anyone in the neighbourhood bothers you here's my card. Call me anytime"

"I'll remember that. Thank you once again for returning her."

She closed the door and turned to Gwen who was standing with a sheepish look on her face.

" Care to explain that?

" Well here's the thing, it was Miles's idea mostly there was a dinner and his parents wanted to know how he spent his time away. He needed something to cover his tracks so I kind of told him I was trained by Spiderman and I was adopted by you. I don't have any.."

"Got it."

" what do you mean you got it?"

" You have no relatives in this world and instead of creating fake people you wanted someone who could back you up."

"That was fast"

"You should've heard some of the excuses Peter used to give when he started out. It's amazing I didn't find out sooner. He knows that eventually they are going to find out right?"

"The way he has been acting that day is not too far away."

"Mm hmm I see why don't you catch me up on what you told them".. then Gwen proceeded to tell her.

The scan on her companion was almost complete but for some reason it was taking a lot of time, she tried to speed up the process the progress either slowed down or even stopped at times. She looked up at his friend, who was sitting with a sad emoji on his face. _Was he really swapped or tampered with_? she wondered.

In another part of city a portal opened and a black clad man was thrown out of it. He looked around the city before scanning it block by block entirely for last known locations of Spiderman. He was retrofitted with all kinds of cameras and sensors to pick up all kinds of signals including spider web. He found some near May's house.

Before May could go to the kitchen to prepare food, he entered the kitchen through the wall. Looking around he saw the cooked food placed in many dishes. A message displayed in front of his prosthetic face. _Sedate them_. He quickly added an enhanced form of a sedative in the food before disappearing in the wall again.

After dinner May was the first to fall asleep as she was human it hit her fast. The others were feeling drowsy but the effects were too strong for them to ignore as they all decided to crash for the night.

The man then looked around seemingly taking them in their sleeping positions before moving towards Spider noir. He touched him and played back the last encounter he had with him back on his earth in front of his screen, stopping and zooming in his biochemistry, DNA and everything about him. It played in front of him in the form of a loop over and over again each time focusing either on a different part of the fight or his physiology.

Finishing that he started to move towards Peni then shifted towards his companion. Reaching over to the screen he saw the scan was complete and it was alerting Peni's phone with the message _tampering detected_. He turned the alert off and was just about to reset the configuration of the Peni's companion when an invisible force hit him on the face knocking him to the other wall. The man stood back up and before facing a kick on the abdomen and it sent him through the window shattering the glass. This made the survival instincts of some of the Spider men kick in but not enough to fully wake them up. Before the man could get up again he faced repeated punches to the face over and over again to the point his prosthetic face started to cave in. Immediately activating his infrared camera a split second before the next punch he caught Miles's hand and sent him flying through the open window.

All this noise and commotion brought Gwen and Peni back to consciousness as they were on the floor. Gwen helped Miles to his feet.

" You alright?"

"Yeah I'm good caught this one trying to do something to Peni's friend."

"How did you know to come here? What about your parents?"

"They're fine they are sleeping. My Spider senses alerted me something was going on except it was shifting from one point to the next till it led me here, know how to deal with this one"

"Let's see how many of us it can handle"

 **NOTE:- Hey guys the next chapter will involve the first big fight and a hint as to the aspirations of the person that our beloved characters are up against. Also I have a small request guys. Please keep reviewing as it fuels the motivation to write. This story has surpassed a 1000 reads a big thanks to all of you for that but unless I know how you guys are liking it and areas I can improve, it becomes difficult to keep doing stories of this nature. Please leave a review I would love to know your perspective and thanks to everyone who is reading it.**


	9. Chapter 9

**The journey begins**

The man got up to his feet and saw Miles advancing towards him, he raised his arm to block him when Miles jumped high in the air, the moment he raised his gaze, a fist and a kick to the face sent him back on the ground.

Gwen shot web after web at his head to block his field of vision. She then grabbed his arms he tried to vibrate his face and shed the webbing before Miles smeared his face with a thick layer of web as he landed. Both of them continued to do that while wrapping him in a cocoon, running circles around him however he was constantly vibrating his entire body faster than the two could complete it.

"Hold him still" Peni ordered before throwing a miniaturised device that latched on to him, His vibrations stopped a few seconds later before sparks came from different parts of his body and his fell on one leg with his head down.

" is it over?" Gwen asked still wobbly due to the effects of the drug in her system.

" I don't know looks like.." Miles was cut off as he saw the man go invisible.

"Where is he?" Peni asked before suddenly being lifted off the ground and shoved violently away landing a couple of feet away.

Miles was helping a struggling Gwen to her feet before being punched in the face again. He swung wildly his one free arm which struck something that landed through the door breaking it.

" Get Peni I can take care of myself, I'm ok Miles.."

Peni was shakily getting up trying to activate his companion who was in "sleep mode", she fumbled with the controls she had with her activating just in time to see him struggling against something invisible. He grabbed it more pressure and pushed it to the ground.

Miles arrived and started to do the same hoping to crack through his outer shell, when the man turned visible again. He managed to slip through the ground.

"What just happened?"

"Elements of his body run on some form of electrical current that made him susceptible to my EMP device, it looks like he managed to reboot himself somehow. Woah…" Peni swayed before sitting on the couch reeling from the effects of the drug.

"Where did he go? We have to alert the others. How did he do that?"

"Let's get to the basement. That's where he went." Gwen stumbled towards the elevator.

Spider noir who was still asleep suddenly woke up with a start and looked around. " I just had a flashback. Or was it a dream? I'm not sure..hey guys what uhh..what happened here?" He finished looking around at the destruction. " May is going to be pissed" he mumbled incoherently courtesy of the remaining vestiges of the sedative.

Miles decided to follow Gwen as Spider noir came up to Peni.

"What's wrong?"

" I don't know it looks like he scrambled my device that was scanning him somehow".

"I'll go check on May" Spider noir said as he proceeded to go into her room. She was still in deep sleep. He took her pulse, it was slow but going steadily. He wondered briefly if he should take her with them but then he stopped in his tracks remembering he couldn't exactly defend her in this state. He decided to follow the rest to the basement.

At the basement all of them were soundly asleep as the man fell through the floor and landed close to the spider man who were jolted out of "deep sleep" status through the noise but once again not fully awake.

 _Peter was watching MJ coming towards him..in a bathrobe walking suggestively. She came close to him and leaned in. He opened his mouth to kiss her senseless when she placed her foot on the floor with a loud thud. He saw her do it again with her other foot and then repeat it as if on a loop._

" _C'mon babe what are you doing?" he whined._

" _Wake up you idiot, there'll be plenty of time to ogle me later!" and her tapping got louder and louder_

Peter groggily woke up to see the man walking towards him thankfully In a much more robotic manner, otherwise the resemblance to his dream would have been too uncanny for him to digest! He tried to hit him on the face but it went through him. The moment the man grabbed him he hit his face and grabbed it between his legs before landing on his hands and throwing him over the head to the other side.

Peter then jumped and latched himself to the ceiling. "Guys I kinda need help here" he yelled reaching the coms. "Also a strategy to beat this guy!". He said moving from one spot to the next on the ceiling barely managing to dodge the guy as he tried to catch him like a basketball.

The elevator opened. The man scanned it and found it to be empty. Confused he entered it and looked around. It was pitch black and the faint outline of equipment attached in the background.

Another contraption slightly larger than before attached to his back. It exploded landing him on his face before he swiftly got up and turned around to see a cloud of smoke surrounding the base outside the elevator.

" Now" the muffled voice of Spider noir yelled before a barrage of webbing started to come at the man's face. He wiped it of slowly enough for Peni to throw another EMP device at him. Once again sparks flew off and instantly he went invisible.

" _Seriously how is he still turning invisible? I still don't know how my invisibility works except I can turn it on and off to my will."_ Miles thought.

"You sure have a lot of toys" Spider noir said.

"I came prepared. But it doesn't seem enough for these guys. Hold him down".

The man was strong however the combined strength of all the superheroes and Peni's companion proved too much as he was perfectly still. Peni started to program the emp device to blast as soon as it detects a surge of current through the man and keep it going for several loops atleast. It was tech from the future after all.

They all had goggles on that could detect wavelengths of a wider range than the human eye including infrared so they could see him struggling to break free.

" Who are you?" Gwen decided to try.

The man stopped struggling and looked at her. She could see his featureless face looking at her. If it wasn't for the fact that he moved like he was sentient he would've made a hell of a scarecrow.

"Does he even talk?" Miles asked

"He wants something from all of us…Mind telling us anything? Why you literally turned back time? Robbed a store? _Also interrupted my dream"_ Peter finished with a thought.

The man simply struggled to get free as another EMP device was activated as he looked at all of them but didn't say anything.

They held him down for several minutes before Peter asked.

"Hey how is Aunt May?"

"She's asleep it'll probably take a few more hours for the drug to wear off. Did you find anything Peni?" Spider noir asked.

"It looks like he is covered in some form of exoskeleton that has adaptive nanotechnology embedded in it. But I really don't understand some of the materials on him. I would need a spectrometer to confirm but some of these alloys, their unlike anything else even in the future world I'm from."

"So what are you saying? He's an android that's also an alien or something?" Gwen asked

"It's possible but I need to get a peek inside him to confirm. One thing is for sure. Someone else is behind all this."

"How can you tell?" Miles asked.

"This" Peni said tapping his face " is a screen it's connected to some kind of a neural interface that is communicating with him sending him instructions. This last piece of communication I was able to download was that to sedate all of us. Thankfully he didn't delete all traces of communication or was unable to."

Peter's thoughts meanwhile shifted to May as he saw her lying perfectly still on her bed in the computer screen. He knew she was asleep but the uncanny resemblance to his own aunt lying on the deathbed brought back traces of the haunting feelings he had buried deep down with her. He knew they couldn't have seen this coming but he felt the familiar guilt all the same along with the emotion he hated the most: Helplessness. He quickly shook it off and silently swore to do a better job of protecting her.

 _Meanwhile in another universe_

A lone figure was sleeping. Various apparatus was attached to his torso. Men and women were taking readings, sorting through data. Shouting instructions at one another. It was almost like a symphony of movement perfectly coordinated with one another. Upon closer inspection some of them were not completely human.

 _In the dreamlike sequence the movements in the real world were mirrored in the city as the lone figure roamed from one point to another taking in the sprawling city._

" _The detailing is impressive, but.." the figure paused looking at the mechanical movements of the people around him." It still not human enough."_

Suddenly the figures faded into oblivion before the lone figure's eyes opened in the real world. "Why the hell did you bring me out?"

"One of your minions were caught right now. Do you want to deploy another one?"

"They are already deployed. It's automatic I told you, the spider men are the biggest threats to our plans right now as they may hinder our progress to collect data about the different worlds but their lives are also a big part of what we hope to achieve here. You don't think I prepared for that? Let me get back to perfecting the projections which is what you need me for."

The man simply nodded before letting him go back to sleep. He then turned around before going upstairs and joining the rest of the men who were teleconferencing the whole thing.

"Do you think he can do it?"

"I always thought they were two kinds of people who has the kinds of ambition that he does. The delusional or the visionary. Right now I'm having a hard time deciding which bucket he falls into"

"Alright apparently that's good enough for the other investors to fund this venture of his"

"Did you know there is a whole other universe where animals talk. He's going to visit it the next time."

"At this point anything's possible. What about the humans in that world?"

"We don't know."

"Let's see what he finds out."

"In the meantime what to do with the kidnapped specimen?"

"He said he sent one to study their abilities, understand their lives. Is this the one?"

" After he finishes the simulation it's time we all had a long overdue talk" another spoke up and everyone nodded in agreement as they looked at a smaller screen revealing Peni's companion seemingly disabled.

 _In Miles's world_

"How long is it going to take?"

"Just a couple of more minutes"

Peter was watching May at the screen when suddenly sparks started to fly again from the man's body in all directions and the man started to disintegrate bit by bit.

"What the hell is happening?" Peter asked

"Someone's disintegrating him, the signal is foreign, I can't stop it" Peni replied panicking.

The man was disintegrating part by part. As his face started to turn inward almost like it was imploding he managed to twist his arm and grab Peni's companion's face. He pulled apart and the familiar blips started to appear all over his body and he was vibrating violently.

He fell down completely blank just as the man disintegrated completely. Everyone was too shocked to say anything.

" NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Peni screamed as she went scurrying to his friend and before she could open him up, the blips appeared again before he transformed into another black clad man.

The split second shock was quickly overwhelmed by response as all the superheroes quickly grabbed the immobile man.

Peni was full out sobbing at this point but a part of her knew something was wrong with the scans. But she didn't know where her real companion was at this point. Was it possible someone destroyed him completely..no it's not possible she wouldn't allow it not after nearly losing him the last time.

Before she could process her emotions further the man opened what looked like a pair of eyes that looked way too similar and disturbing for Peni to look at. Without wasting any time she started first.

"Where is he? What have you done to him?" she shouted.

 **Hey guys I have a question. In the movie Spider ham asked a question about animals in other dimensions but he doesn't say anything about humans. So do I keep them in this story? If yes should they sentient in a way humans normally are? What do you say? Let me know.**

 **Also I'll start calling Peni's companion Sp/dr from now on.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Consolation, hope and into the universe of talking animals**

A shrugging emoji appeared on his face as the man looked up at Peni's face who was oscillating furiously between shock and anger.

"Tell me" she screamed again and started to punch his face. Spider noir stopped her with one arm.

" Hey calm down, we need to find out more from him, the only way to do that is to keep running tests on him. The sooner you do that the sooner we can rescue him."

Peni looked at him her face wild with barely controlled rage coupled with a haunted look that reminded Peter a bit too much of himself in a case where he saw Max bleeding nearly dead and he wanted nothing more than to go and gut the people responsible with his bare hands. He didn't want the same thing for her, the darkness that sometimes threatened to consume him completely.

"We need you." Gwen added solemnly.

Peni took a couple of deep breaths to calm down and went back to set the equipment back again and began to go over the readings again.

Peni then remembered the cage back in her world. The one she had created to trap Sp/dr if he was corrupted for some reason. _It could work_ she thought.

"We need to detain him properly. In my world there is a cage I made in case Sp was corrupted." she finished with a sniffle.

"I think there's something similar here in this base. We can put him there for now." Peter said

They barely had time to recover when the man violently shook them away. Miles rolled back before turning invisible. Peter swung around before landing a spin kick that sent him tumbling back down and webbed him blocking his view. Miles managed to land another punch in his face before he swatted him away like Miles was nothing while he wiped his face.

Gwen landed a kick in his face that launched him in the air and Peni threw the last EMP device she had at him a split second before Gwen simultaneously pulled him back mid-air through two precisely aimed web shots at his shoulders.

"Now Miles" Gwen shouted.

The blast from the EMP combined with a big jolt of electricity from Miles and his impromptu "Hey" sent the man cruising through the air and crashing in the farthest corner of the room frying him somewhat from the inside.

Spider noir pressed a button that activated the prison. The man landed splat on his face, smoke coming out of his entire body. He was seemingly down for the moment. Peter activated the shields that blocked electromagnetic emissions of several kinds. so he wouldn't be able to escape.

"Man how did he get all these toys? I have to ask aunt May about this."

"I was completely useless just now, so were you Peter." Spider noir said ever the spoilsport.

" No I wasn't see because of these shields he won't be able to escape."

"Exactly my point without the EMP thing and Miles's inexplicable ability to become an energy source, we can't fight these guys and considering what's happening there's more than one."

"There has to be a way to fight them. We'll get to that but what happened to her friend?" Peter asked hesitantly gesturing towards Peni.

Peni meanwhile was lost in her own world and was sitting helplessly on the floor, tears falling from her face freely. She felt disgusted that their inmate tried to imitate him. She knew that he was alive as the psychic link with the spider was there. She would have felt it but the shock hadn't completely subsided when she saw him transform.

Miles came and sat next to her. "Can you..uh can you still feel him?"

"Yes, but I have no idea where he is Miles he could be anywhere in the multiverse. I don't know.." she couldn't continue when the tears started again and she leaned into Miles's shoulder finally letting her pent up emotions out. Gwen held her from the back as she continued to cry. Peter came up and engulfed them all in a giant hug.

"So we're doing the group hug thing huh?..." Spider noir said earning a glare from Peni before she started to giggle when he came and tickled her. "Screw it I love you guys" before tackling every one of them in a hug.

They all sat silently for a couple of minutes holding each other before Miles whispered. "Hey not to spoil this moment but we are missing a member in the group hug, Do we tell him about this?"

"Probably not" Peter replied.

"Guys a little respect" Gwen retorted.

"Yeah we'll include him in a happier time" Spider noir said before everyone looked at him. "Not that this isn't cheering us up." He added.

They didn't notice the man had gotten up and taken a photo of their moment together silently.

 _In another Universe_

A hooded figure was running through the maze narrowly escaping death, her friend was bloodied and bruised, she was running out of options fast. She turned quickly at a dead end running to the other side and was cornered. The sound of running followed by a gunshot killed his friend. She looked down at him and looked back at the shooters and pulled out her gun and quickly shot his killers with her own gun and before an explosion engulfed her.

 _Iteration 2_

The hooded figure was running through the maze alone, people were shooting her from behind. She ducked, dodged and managed to evade all of them before reaching another dead end. She turned around and saw that the men had surrounded her. A straight gunshot to the abdomen followed by another one to the head. She heaved as the life slowly drained out of her.

 _Iteration 3_

She narrowly managed to escape the blast before landing on her back. She turned around and threw another grenade that seemingly killed them. Suddenly she was caught and thrown sideways with someone landing on top of her, it was her friend. They helped each other up and then one of the before the firing started again. She threw a flash grenade, they started running in the opposite direction when a bullet managed to find it's way to her leg.

" Go" she yelled.

"If I leave you here you're good as dead anyway"

"It doesn't matter one of us has to get out ali…"

She was cut-off with another explosion went off near them. She pulled out her gun and started to shoot through the cloud of smoke in front of them.

"It looks like they're gone" his friend spoke up after being out for a while only to see her lying perfectly still, body riddled with bullets. He barely managed to crawl up to her before gently holding her face and starting to weep.

 _Many Iterations later…_

He was exhausted but finally got a moment of peace. He had anticipated their positions and managed to take them all out. She was unconscious, but alive they were safe in the zone. He decided to venture out into the maze to see if any of them were left, locking the room behind him. He didn't notice the bleeding man enter the room

Couple of hours later after he had scouted the maze he re-entered the room. He saw her barely able to stand with a knife in her hand, dead man beside her.

" We did it, you managed.." he looked at the body and met her eyes with tears of his own. "to survive. I knew it! I didn't doubt you for one second."

The woman slowly approached him shakily and he caught her in his arms. He held her close finally acknowledging the toll the day had taken on him listening to her heart.

A sharp gasp and a movement of her hand from her back revealed the stab wound before she collapsed on the floor taking deep breaths.

"No, hey look at me, you're going to live don't you dare die on me now!" he shook her furiously. He then took a towel and managed to stop the bleeding. She was now unconscious but alive. He sighed and took in her state before the pixels on her face started to fade bit by bit. Then he felt himself fading slowly losing his senses bit by bit..

His eyes blinked rapidly several times before waking and sitting up, his closest business partner and mentor was sitting with his face in his hands. He had come in a while back and saw his protege once again pushing himself to the brink. He had to pull him out after observing his vitals.

Said protege promptly got up before the after effects of being plugged in for nearly a day made him dizzy and he threw up while collapsing on his pristine work floor.

"When did you become a masochist?"

" I can explain.." he tried to explain in a scratchy voice before throwing up again.

"You do realise for the funding to stay alive, the face of the flagship project has to stay…Oh I don't know alive!" he finished with a huff.

He dry heaved for several moments before taking a sip of water from the bottle his partner handed him. He gurgled his mouth before spitting the water out.

"Care to explain what exactly were you perfecting that all your vitals were critical? The new demo presentation is due in several hours in front of the board members and here you are literally on the verge of death. If you have a death wish there are less painful ways to die which brings me back to the original question. Do you enjoy pain that much?"

"It's not what you think, I was testing a simulation that could lead to evoking emotions from them.."

"Bullshit, look me in the eye and tell me right now you weren't testing her again. Lie to me and I swear I'm cancelling the meeting and you'll be benched for a week." He shouted, irritated with his reckless behaviour.

"SHE SURVIVED" he bellowed.

"What did you just say? That's it I'm taking you in.." before he cut him off.

"Look at the latest simulation, look at it man, see for yourself and then tell me I'm crazy."

"Fine I'll humour you and not chalk it up to hallucinations, dreams or a million other things that could have gone wrong when you were FLAT LINING there. I" he stopped when a monitor was shoved in his face. His jaw dropped when he saw it.

"This means.."

"Yes"

"But how..?

" I don't know how except she did. I need to go over it frame by frame to know more, but tonight I can sleep well knowing there is hope." He took a half breath before breaking out a smile that was sincere. "There's hope for her."

"But have you really thought about this? I mean the baggage of such a traumatic death.."

He cut him off "This is our chance, my chance to get her back. I am not stopping. Now help me add the findings to this presentation".

 _Sometime later in the universe of talking animals_

A portal opened and a lion appeared from it. He looked around the vast bustling city where all the animals were in going to work. No one would have given him any particular attention if not for the fact that he was naked! Some started to boo at him, others started to whistle before he turned around and ran away.

Peter Porker was having a rather boring day. His boss J Jonah Jackal had given him some fluff article about a model Miss Water Buffalo whose pictures he had to click. He wasn't looking forward to it at all. He decided to call In sick when Mr Jackal walked by his cubicle.

"Porker what are you doing?"

"Actually sir I'm not feeling so well can I take the rest of the day off"

"No you're heading downtown right now where we just heard Spider-Ham was needed, you're the only one he talks to so duty calls."

"What about the assignment?"

Mr. Jackal looked around before going to another cubicle, Peter following closely behind "Morhames this is Peter Porker he is going to get you up to speed on your next assignment." Before turning to Peter and said. " Get him up to speed and be ready. You leave in an hour"

Peter looked at Morhames, he was a younger pig most likely an intern judging by the sheer look of pure wonder in his eyes at the prospect of getting any work. He decided to make it quick.

"Hey so I like to know people more on a first name basis, what's your name?"

"It's Miles" he stuck his hand out. "You are?"

Peter was too stunned to reply. It was almost as if the universe played a horrible joke on him and was laughing at his face. Here he was missing his friends terribly waiting for an opportunity to meet them again and now he stumbles upon one of their counterparts on this earth. He quickly shook it off remembering Spider Ham was needed.

" I'm Peter look I have to go superheroes don't usually wait around. Why don't we talk about what you have to do, we can catch up later."

"Uh sure but there is something I would like to ask. I know it's kind of personal and I know that I'm new here and I have to earn my place here and I know.."

"Miles just say what you want, I'll see If I can do it"

"Could you ask Spider-ham to introduce me to the model. I am such a huge fan and I follow her work religiously. I would love to meet her. She speaks very highly of him. Please I'll consider it a big favour if you do" Miles spoke in that blend of confidence and awkwardness manner that crept Peter out.

" _The resemblance is so uncanny"_ Peter thought. But it was sweet. He decided to help him out. It would be nice to be reminded of the original Miles from time to time.

He explained the work he had to do which explicitly included not hitting on the model until introductions were underway. After all his pay check could be affected.

Peter then met with Mr Jackal to finalize everything and left the office.


	11. Chapter 11

**Difficult conversations**

 _In Miles's world_

Once they had ensured the cage would not break and the no talk policy adopted by their captive, they decided to get a few hours of rest. Peni remained at the base saying she wanted to work through the night to get more answers. After a lot of arguments she agreed to a few hours of rest to prepare for the next day but decided to crash at the base as the effects of the sedative wore off fatigue set in for all of them. Spider-noir decided to join her not wanting to leave her alone. He knew the symptoms, the overwhelming emotions that either broke through an avalanche, a glimpse of which they all got to see a while back or it remained locked behind a wall during difficult periods like this, eating them inside and he would be damned if he let anyone close to him go through that without support.

Peter meanwhile was debating to use this time to back to his world to inform MJ of all that happened and discuss if it was safe to bring her here or not.

"Miles you should go, it's pretty late or" Gwen looked at the time "pretty early, might want to get back before your parents wake up."

"I can't leave like this, we need to stay together, you saw what these things can do. Besides Mrs. May is still asleep." he retorted.

"I'll stay by her side, besides I'm her "daughter" now, might as well play the part!" she tried to joke.

Miles however started to feel guilty at that. "Listen I can't think you enough. I'll make sure they don't bother you that much especially my mom."

"Miles it's ok I understand." She paused "Besides I had a pretty good time not including her interrogation." She tucked a loose hair behind her ear.

"Really?"

"But you're still going to owe me so big" she teased with a devious smirk

"Well I did save the multiverse once so I'm pretty sure I can take care of it!" he replied cockily.

"Oh yeah like you took care in the dinner"

"I jumped to your defence" he protested.

"Yeah what part of " _Apparently she couldn't resist my charms_ " was jumping to my defence?" she added with a deep voice.

"I sound nothing like that" he replied mortified but secretly wondering if Gwen actually liked it or not.

Gwen let out a small laugh before finishing with a "Yeah you do."

"Oh well it's better than when dad told you about the comments from those guys about you" and it was Miles turn to let out the laugh while wiping the smile from Gwen's face.

She kicked him in the foot again "Ow! You gotta stop doing that."

"After this mess is sorted I am going to make them pay so badly!" she replied with a face devoid of any emotion.

"What are you going to do?"

"Oh I have my ways" she replied smile returning to her face.

After several moments of silence Miles spoke up "You sure I can't stay back. I can quickly go in the morning and be back in a matter of minutes."

"Miles go spend time with your loved ones. If we can't do that then all this" she gestured to everyone "is for nothing. It's fine really come back in the morning we can take care of ourselves." She finished with a little bit more force.

Miles then remembered her breakdown before dinner, her drifting out of conversations. He wanted to comfort her and assure her that she wasn't alone and that he considered her and all of the other superheroes his family too. It was different but a good kind of different family. He decided to take it upon himself to remind her and everyone else that from time to time.

"You're my family too" he whispered silently.

"What?"

"You're all my family too" he held her gaze making sure she understood it before nodding and reaching for the door.

"Miles wait"

Gwen walked up to him and to his surprise gave him a hug.

"You're family too". He whispered into his hair before pulling back. " I also wanted to thank you… earlier… before dinner for comforting me. It's been a while since anyone's done that."

"Anytime" he smiled.

Miles was still holding her when he saw Peter watching with a wide grin on his face. He winked at him and then proceeded to chew on a bran bar ushering with his hands to continue while chewing loudly.

"Miles?"

"Yeah"

"Let go"

"Right..yeah bye. See you in a few hours guys"

He walked up to Peni.

"Be back ASAP" she said before he could say anything voice muffled in Spider noir's lap.

"Go kid we're all too tired anyways to work now" he said.

Miles nodded and Peter accompanied him to the lift.

"It was sweet calling us your family and I'm sure everyone feesl the same way, just make sure she doesn't see you as her sibling or something that'll be awkward." Peter whispered to him silently.

"What?" Miles asked alarmed before the door closed on his face. He stood staring at it for several moments. " Dammit why did he have to say that?" he cursed under his breath.

Peter knew he got into Miles's head but the very least he wanted for the both of them to even acknowledge any feelings they might have for each other if those feelings even exists in the first place. It's just that Miles reminded him too much of his teenage self sometimes and how awkward he used to be around girls especially the ones he liked. MJ would testify easily to that. So he didn't want Miles to make the same mistakes he did. Hence he stepped in. But alas you can never fully comprehend a teenager's mind.

He didn't count in the factor that Miles would have nightmares about Gwen calling him her brother!

Gwen went to check on May with Peter.

Peni meanwhile got up again with the intent to start working again. An arm came into contact with her shoulder.

"You should get some rest. I would help except that I have no idea how any of this works. Maybe if there were knobs.." Spider noir drifted off before coming back to the present. " Point is you're no good to him that way"

" I can't just leave him to rot somewhere who knows what they have planned for him." She replied forcefully

"OK what will you do now?"

Peni looked at him and back at the equipment. Her tired mind was trying to come up with a solution but truly all she would have done is to continue scanning him for other worldly signatures. But that would not be possible with all the radiation blockers active… She slumped back into the ground in exhaustion, wrapping her arms around her knees and started to weep again.

Peter wrapped his arms around her again and held her until she was reduced to sniffles. She didn't see the sole tear he wiped below his goggles.

"I can't just do nothing" She finally spoke after several minutes.

"You clearing your head is doing something. Look Mrs May is down for the night and the rest of us can't do anything in this area."

"What if they destroy him completely? We could be too late by then." Peni looked at him with huge tear stained eyes that nearly melted his heart before he focused again.

"I don't think that anyone who went to all that trouble would take him just to destroy him."

"You can't guarantee it.. Just go Peter I'll be fine I just want to be alone right now."

" I will sit in the other corner of the base, facing the walls but there is no way in hell I'm leaving you here alone. Not when I can."

Peni scoffed before replying "Yeah.. What can you do about it?"

"The only close friend I have besides all of you is in my world, trying to destroy the dangerous drug cartels all around the city with only the police as backup. I know that any minute of any day a stray bullet, an enemy car or thugs can take him down and I won't be there to stop it. Oh who am I Kidding it's already happened before. I've seen him helpless life slowly being sucked out of him and all I could do was rush him to the hospital and stand outside people clicking pictures asking me who he was to me and not one question about his well being. You know what happened next?"

Peni shook her head.

"I destroyed all the cameras with my fists and then threatened to hurt them if they ever invaded my privacy again. You know what happens when a superhero displays..what you guys might call a meltdown..?"

Peni nodded in understanding before Peter continued

"My point is after a public apology you know what I realized? Shit is always going to go down and I would have handled it better if there was someone with me who knows exactly what I am going through.." he looked at her " like you are. So yeah ill stay away and I may be useless here but I am not leaving you alone. Not like this"

"Why are you doing this?"

Peter shrugged and said " I hate when I see someone helpless. Emotionally." He added seeing her raised eyebrow. "Now are we going to argue or are we going to.." he yawned "take a break and get him back first thing tomorrow."

"Yeah that was a fake yawn"

"But the sentiment is real I am really tired."

Peni brought out a bed sheet from his backpack and layed on top of it closing her eyes. Peter got up to go to the other part of the room.

" Wait.." he felt her hand on his "stay with me then?" she asked almost childlike.

Peter smiled and laid down with an arm around her while she laid her head on his chest. "I can't calm down Peter tell me a story."

"What?"

"Anything please distract me so that I can sleep. Tell me about this friend of yours."

Peter then proceeded to tell her adventures about him and Max. An hour later she fell asleep and Peter hugged her closer and soon his eyes shut listening to her heartbeat.

 _In the universe of talking animals_

Peter swung through the city stopping a few crimes along the way before reaching a clearing. There were a bunch of animals cheering at something. As he reached closer he saw that a fight had broken out between a bunch of animals. All the animals who were watching it backed away as Peter approached the crowd.

"What's going on? Hey stop it" Peter tried to stop the animals just as a gazelle landed on the floor. Just as the gazelle landed on the floor she got back up again and started walking backward right after she was punched. Then she landed exactly where she was again.

"It's just like when I was kids. Never really appreciate the art form until you it upfront. But kids sure love a good cartoon." A voice called up from behind. Peter turned around to see a masked man walk up towards the crowd.

"Who are you and What are you doing.?"

"Oh a Spiderman is here too, now you'll make a great sample to find out why this universe is an anomaly. Thousands of years of evolution and every other species develop human level sentience. Alright let's wrap it up here"

"That's enough" Peter jumped at him before freezing mid-air. The man came in front of his face and said " See I'm not from around here and also from the future. Nevertheless I appreciate the effort."

Peter tried to move a muscle, any part of him mid-air for several seconds as he saw humans completely black with no faces come and carry all the animals through a portal.

He struggled for several moments when his face twitched. Then he could move his arms and legs and a couple of minutes later he landed on his two feet. Peter released a web shot at the man before a black hand caught it. He jumped high in the air to tackle the man as the faceless human caught him by the neck and threw him in the ground.

Peter got up hazily before he froze again.

" I'm sorry it's still a work in progress. Physics is fascinating and hard after all." The man released Peter once again and the faceless man knocked him out cold.

All of them disappeared through the portal as it closed.

 _Hours later in Miles's world_

May woke up groggily and tried to move her head. Pain flared up due to her sore neck as she tried to slowly take in her surroundings. She blinked rapidly several times and then her vision became clearer. She vaguely made out a figure in front of her before dozing off again…

 _Unknown amount of time later_

May woke up again this time with a start. She saw Peter sitting in a chair beside her.

"How long was I asleep?" she sighed when she looked at the clock, it was past 10 in the morning.

"Hey uh take it easy" Peter moved with surprising tenderness and care in his voice before taking May's hand and guiding her to sit upwards.

"Peter I'm ok I've been through a lot worse before" she looked at him and was surprised to see tears in his eyes. He quickly blinked them away when he caught her gaze.

"What happened? Is everyone ok?"

Peter nodded before speaking a hoarse voice that indicated he was crying "Yeah we..we were sedated by this man/machine thing from another world who wanted to scan us or test us for some reason. It was touch and go there for a while but we managed to take him down. Peni is running tests to find him again as we speak we could use your help there unless you're not feeling up to it, I mean are you I'll get you something.."

May reached out and grabbed his hand to stop his rambling. He looked at her at the contact and she noticed his eyes were puffed. They looked at each other for a moment before May decided to speak up not really understanding the reason for his strange reaction.

"Peter this is me tell me what happened slowly speed and old age don't go together especially when you throw sedatives in the mix."

"Someone is after us, wants to know about our lives maybe even our abilities. We don't know why yet. They sent these robots who are quite powerful, we managed to take one down."

"Does it talk?"

" We don't know Peni is scanning him right now to find out which universe these things came from and there is one more thing..they can shape shift, Peni's friend Sp/dr has turned into one of them. She needs your help.

" I'll do that right after you tell me what's going on with you and why were you crying?"

"It's nothing..I.."

"I literally walked in on my own Peter putting on his suit on the exact moment a crime was going on to confront his secret which I was aware of by then. Trust me you have the same tells when you're bluffing." She cut him off.

"Wow tell me more about that" he tried to change the topic.

"Right after you tell me what's going on with you"

"FINE YOU SCARED ME ALIRIGHT" Peter nearly shouted and flinched at his own reaction.

"How?" May asked calmly suspecting she knew what this was about.

"You were lying there helplessly while I couldn't do anything I was helpless to stop it. It reminded me.."

"My counterpart?" May finished for him knowingly.

"How did you know?"

"Because I carry the same look every day since I lost my own Peter.." she took a deep breath to control herself before forcing a smile at Peter " So we lost both our counterparts huh?"

Peter was silent and did not know what to say as he just looked at her. May got up before almost falling down again still reeling from the after effects of the drug. Peter held onto her before finally breaking down. He cried as silently as he could finally letting some of the pent up grief of his losses out. Ever since he was a boy his aunt May was his safe haven, whenever he was truly losing it. The last time they were here he did not really get a chance to interact with her as the danger was imminent. Seeing her so helpless wasn't something he ever wanted to go through again. Truth be told he was panicking internally between going over to his world to bring MJ here and staying every waking minute here. But he had to trust the other superheroes especially Gwen who stayed in her room all night long waking up every now and then checking her vitals which allowed him to talk to MJ and they agreed to have an emergency pack ready to move at a moment's notice should the situation arise. Bringing her here wouldn't make sense as it was likely they would go universe hopping again.

May just hugged him tighter and continued to run her hand through his head whispering soothing words in his ear from time to time.

"I can't lose you again. I just can't" Peter sobbed quietly making May shed a few tears of her own before she closed her eyes to stop them.

"Peter…Peter look at me" May jerked him a little. Peter shook his head refusing to move his head from her shoulder.

"You think I can go through it again?"

Peter looked up at that and suddenly realized his outburst. He quickly rubbed his eyes and moved to get up before May stopped him.

"Look at me kiddo". When he finally managed to maintain eye contact again she spoke up " It's not your fault old age happens to everyone. It will catch up with me someday but until then I'm not going anywhere."

"But I could have.."

"No buts, superhero or not you know this better than anyone if you keep piling up your losses from the past inside they are going to wear you down. You need to figure out a way to deal with them from time to time that includes being better prepared than before. When was the last time you talked to someone about this?"

"It's not easy plus I just started again with MJ I don't want to dump everything on her."

"Peter it's hard enough to find people whom you can connect with much less one with the kind of secrets we carry. You have someone who does…"

"Until something like this happens…time and time again. Say we move forward and she got hurt and somewhere down the line if we have kids they got hurt. The losses could keep piling up faster and I can't help but feel responsible and it's tearing me up inside." Peter finished putting his face between his hands.

May looked at him knowing it was true. He saw his own nephew go through similar things always struggling to protect his loved ones and the city at the same time and saw the toll it took on him. She said the only thing she could think of.

"Then we all shoulder it together. We have an entire multiverse of heroes to call upon now. You don't have to carry it all yourself." Seeing Peter shaking his head again May tried another approach.

"What if this thing you described had been more powerful?"

"What do you mean?"

"What if these things had been too powerful for even you all combined to stop? What if instead of sedating us he kidnapped us all or any million other worse scenarios than that? You couldn't have foreseen anything Peter. It kills me every day thinking maybe I could have given something to protect my nephew but in the end it already happened. The only thing I can do is be better the next time and grieve and that is exactly the thing you need to do. "

"But you seem so together all the time not that I'm accusing you of being cold or anything"

"You of all people know that grief can be channelled into something else, but you can never channel all of it. Sometimes the only way to deal with negative feelings is to let them out."

Peter opened his mouth to say something but closed it again her words sinking in. He just smiled before laying his head on her shoulder and feeling a bit lighter than before. Both of them sat silently for several minutes before she spoke up again.

"I would love to stay this way but we should get going if we want to clear up this mess. Where are the others?"

" In the basement" on cue Gwen entered the room breakfast in hand.

"Hey am I interrupting something? I can go"

"Nonsense dear come in join us. We can all have a quick breakfast while you catch me up on what happened last night. Call the others too if they haven't eaten already."

"Oh they are working in the base and eating. Speaking of I didn't know you liked cereal so much Mrs May?"

"What?"

"Oh I just noticed you have 10 different kinds of cereal in your cabinet and several kinds of milk in the fridge."

May sighed and started to rub her temples knowing who was responsible for the incoming headache.

Peni meanwhile had managed to figure out that their captive came from another universe. She was waiting for May to come and help with the equipment so they can finally go get Sp/dr back. It was simple really. The levels of radiation blockers could not have been adjusted without taking into account his molecular structure, design and nanotech makeup. However the signal he sent to communicate across the multiverse could be traced and lead to another earth in the multiverse. So she had to reduce the radiation enough for him to send an alert across the multiverse as she traced it. Some of the equipment existed back in her world. But she wouldn't have come up with the idea had Spider noir not insisted on the rest they desperately needed for her mind to work clearly.

Of course the man in front of her now was different, gone was the guy who had comforted her the night before.

"Oh man this is so great we haven't even discovered so many flavours in my world yet? How do normal people even get anything done after eating all this?"

May guessed correctly as Spider noir and Miles were in the base all munching down bowls of cereal. Peter practically devoured everything with the sheer variety of flavours he found. Miles wondered if he should explain sugar rush to him and the side effects of its consumption his world will probably discover in the future. But there was just way too much glee in his eyes so he decided to question his earlier atrocity.

"Why did you ask me to bring me those other boxes of cereal?"

"I was still hungry after finishing her boxes so I replaced them. I didn't steal this time" Peter replied.

"You used her money without asking her."

"Oh…I'll pay her back..eventually" he said finishing a bowl of Trix and promptly adding more from the box.

"Yeah how are you going to do that?"

"Oh I happen to be very crafty. I convinced an entire room of hardened criminals that I was a helpless woman you don't think I can replace some money"

Miles just rubbed his face in defeat and reached out to grab the last box of Trix before Peter stopped him.

"No you can have anyone but that one's all mine."

"Hey I got all this. Don't I get some? Peni help me out here"

"Miles is right you need to share and Peter you need to stop eating."

"Whose side are you on?" Peter tried to pout except the goggles didn't give away much.

Peni started to laugh at their silly antics.

"Yes I made her laugh! Man I wish my haters could see this who say I'm too dark and broody all the time.

Meanwhile in the house May was pissed at seeing the destruction.

" Again, you guys I get saving the world is important and all but come on destroying the property like this. We're lucky all the patents from our tools keep us flush otherwise I would have filed for bankruptcy a long time ago."

Peter and Gwen just looked at each other and shrugged apologetically.

"After we sort out this mess all of you are on clean up duty"

They silently agreed before entering the elevator. Once the door opened they were exposed to a sight where Miles and Spider-noir were holding a box of Trix in the middle, Miles' hand covered one of Spider-noir's goggles while his foot was on Miles's face. Miles's other foot was keeping Peni in balance who was clearly trying to get in between the two of them to stop. Oh and all of them were covered in cereal and milk.

They all looked at her as if they had been caught stealing which was not far from the truth.

May silently approached them with a death glare and brought a mop to them.

"Clean it up"

A low chorused "yes" came from Miles and Peter and May wondered when she became a foster parent of several unruly superheroes.

Peni spoke up " Mrs. May I need your help with an idea."

"Sure let's talk while these two lunatics work."

Peter meanwhile took Gwen aside and thanked her for watching May all night.

"Don't be ridiculous I care about her too you know. Did you talk to MJ?

"Yeah it's better if she stays back there ready to move if a crisis occurs again. Do you have your dimension hopping device."

"Yeah why?"

"I kind of gave her mine so when all of this is done could you and Peni make another one for me?"

"Yeah alright no problem hey do you think we can find him on time?"

" For Peni's sake and all our sakes I do hope we do, Look go help Peni while I" Peter looked at Spider-noir and Miles bickering with each other. " keep them company."

Gwen smirked seeing their childish antics before joining May and Peni.

A couple of hours later Peni and May gathered all the superheroes to discuss the next course of action.


	12. Chapter 12

**Old foes**

Peni opened a hologram showing many different globes. "Alright this is the multiverse which I have been able to map."

"Each of these exist in a parallel dimension emitting signatures of dark matter and energy that are unique to one another. This difference allows me to map them individually. Now these" she highlighted six worlds "are our worlds and their signatures are programmed into the devices which allow us to move in between these worlds.

"This helped me to track the signal our captive here sent and" she clicked on another spot in farther than the six worlds and bit by bit another world came into the view. "That is where we he is."

"We need a way to fight these things. How do we do that?" Peter asked.

A loud thud sound revealed a concrete door adding another layer of protection over their captive's cage.

"Can't have him listening in on our plan" May added. "Continue."

"We use these " Peni added throwing a similar looking EMP device but was larger in size at him. It was sleeker in design. "I upgraded them, added a separate coil that will automatically recharge it within microseconds. I made several of them, don't know if they'll be enough but with the help of Mrs May they should be effective."

"How many are we talking about?" Miles asked.

"Honestly I don't know but I'll let you know once I'm done with all the calculations it still requires a good tweak."

"And how long will that take?"

"We're still running the numbers but it should be done in a while, Mrs May and I are going to make as many as I can once the first is finished. We will track him using this tracker. It's uniquely programmed to his exoskeleton. These guys may have been able to duplicate themselves but it will notice signs of tampering by anything or anyone who tries to modify him other than me."

"Peni I have to ask, the last time he was hurt you built him back from scratch. I know how much he means to you but why not do it again?" Gwen asked cautiously hoping that came out right.

"I have a psychic link with the spider remember. It's what allows me and him to function as one. Plus his memory core. I don't know how much they can duplicate themselves but there are experiences that we shared together that make him unique. Only I can access them." She replied trying to remain strong.

"Are you sure?"

"I..don't know, but what choice do I have? You want me to leave him?" Peni challenged.

Gwen knew they would have to address this but decided to ask her in private. It was entirely possible they could have copied him for their own purposes and a rescue would be pointless.

As if she picked up on her thoughts May answered.

"Which is why I have also added included the whole range of frequencies emitted by our captive here. This cage finally came in handy so shouldn't be a problem separately tracking him"

"Guys it's not enough" Peter said.

"Why not?" Spider noir asked.

"How about the fact that whoever is behind this can literally bend space and time at his whim. How are we going to fight that?"

Everyone was silent at that before Miles remembered that it took a while for their prisoner to recover as he had attacked him when invisible. " _It could work"_ he thought.

"Can you scan me?"

"Why?" May asked.

"When I first attacked him he wasn't able to see me. Maybe that's what you guys need as well. An element of surprise from all of us. We can take them down undetected as long as we can stay away from their cameras."

"I think I can help with that and we don't need to scan you for that" Miles looked at Peni as she smiled.

 _In the universe of talking animals_

Miles was extremely excited to go and couldn't wait to meet his inspiration and crush. It was a photo shoot of the latest up and coming models. Several editors, journalists and photographers from various publications were there. He was clicking several photos from various angles while trying to gain her attention by pushing through the stream of people rushing to meet her.

When he finally managed to reach close to her he was disappointed to find she was already talking to not one but a group of people. He looked at the photos he had. They were quite good capturing her smile and her horns were adorned with colours while also highlighting her plus size figure! He kept scrolling back and forth so lost in them that it took him a couple of minutes to notice that his idol was left alone for the moment and was giving him a dubious look. He looked up with a goofy smile before noticing her raised eyebrow, and he gave a goofy grin back. She smiled back before looking back in her phone.

" _It's now or never Miles! Go talk to her"_ he told himself. But what if she didn't like her…" _Oh god she's looking at me again.."_. He gave the same grin again and this time she actually spoke something which he couldn't really register as he kept staring at those deep black shot eyes!

"Can I help you?" she asked again.

"Uh yeah I mean I could accept it but you know who wouldn't accept it no one can turn you down I'm Miles btw" he blurted out before

"Hi Miles I'm Mary Jane. Can you try that again maybe a little slower this time?" she smiled at how genuine his reaction was.

"I…I could use a couple of more photos if you're up for it" Miles cursed himself internally for not coming up with something better.

"Oh…. uh ok could you wait let me redo my makeup then we can do it" she replied but her smile disappeared.

" _Great now she thinks I'm like the rest"_ Miles groaned. " _how do I convince her otherwise?"_

After a couple of minutes she returned "You're from the daily beagle right?"

"Yeah how did you know?" Miles asked getting ready.

" I was told Peter Porker would be one of the attendees."

An intense pang of jealousy shot right through Miles as he clenched his mouth tight and tried to keep a straight face. " So you know Peter huh?"

"Oh yeah he is the one who keeps taking all those pictures of Spider-ham right? Do you think he could introduce me?"

Miles didn't reply as he started to click photos silently disappointed. He clicked a lot of photos more than enough to satisfy Mr Jackal. Miles then saw that editors were now approaching her probably for a quote or a juicy titbit about her personal life. He then had a brilliant idea.

"You know I met Spider-ham once" he spoke a little too loudly attracting some wide eyed stares of other animals.

"Really?" Mary asked.

"Yeah I actually managed to save him on that occasion" he spoke confidently and then realized what he should have said it the other way around!

In hindsight it was less than a brilliant idea.

" _What the hell are you talking about Miles. Get a hold of yourself?"_

Mary was shocked " You saved Spider-ham? Prove it" she knew animals would say anything to get attention. She decided to take a chance and find out for herself.

" Tell you what? If you can personally get Spider-ham to tell me that you saved him I will let you have one wish anything you want from me." Miles's eyes widened. "Professionally and you can only ask me after I meet him" she finished with a warning tone in her eyes and a grunt.

"Fine I'll see what I can do" Miles finished and started to sweat profusely. He turned around to leave before he can embarrass himself further and nearly started to run when Mary called him.

"Well you do need to contact me right? Here's my card" she handed him a card which had her photo and a number written in red in the bottom right side. " I look forward to the meeting Miles" she finished with a smile and started to talk with the editors knowing well enough the risk she had taken giving out her number like that. A celebrity like her she didn't need the extra attention. However something about Miles just made her think he could be trusted.

Miles walked away and quickly pulled out his phone and tried Peter's number but it kept telling him it doesn't exist. " _That's weird"_ he thought.

He then received a call from Mr Jackal " Morhames did you get the pictures?"

"Yes sir would you.."

He cut him off " Get back here now and tell Porker if he doesn't call me back within the next few hours I'll fire his swine ass out the door." He barked at him before cutting the call.

Miles briefly wondered how biased were the laws in the office was towards pigs and animals like him in the office considering the offensive comment and the world of media. He kept trying Peter's cell but it kept saying the same thing.

 _In Miles's world_

"Miles I get that you want to go out but the whole day? We'll barely get to spend some quality father son time together.." a loud female "Ahem" made him change his words " family time together" Jefferson said.

Miles sighed and lied through his teeth again " Dad I'm at Gwanda's house again we are going to do some assignment for the next week. It's a paper that needs to be written it's going to take some time. I'll be back tomorrow. I promise.

"Today evening"

"Dad!"

"Today"..some shuffling sound later and what sounded like a whack on the head " evening we could paint again."

"Ma is right behind you isn't she" Miles sighed again.

"Hey I'm talking too aren't I"

"Dad I'll be back soon don't worry I'll call you ok" Miles then cut the phone off before he could hear another lecture. He knew it was time to have a conversation with Ma about personal space. He should have done it after dinner itself. He decided to have it once they came back.

"Everything ok there?" Gwen asked him.

Miles looked at her and remember his vivid dreams. _No nothing is ok especially when I'm harbouring a giant crush on you and I'm hoping you don't see me as as a.."_ No he couldn't think about the dreaded seven letter word that Peter reminded him last night about. " _Damn him"_

"It's fine They're just worried when I told them I won't make it back today. I told them I was with you since I figured Mrs May could cover for us if we take too long."

"Is that it?"

"What do you mean?" Miles asked

"Well ever since you arrived in the morning you seem distant. I thought that was my specialty" Gwen said trying to cheer him up.

"No I fine. Why don't we test out your suit with the others ok?" Miles said quickly and moved to join Peter who was testing his suit. It was a thin light fabric few millimetres thick that scattered light to several directions and bend it in ways to make objects outside it visible but the opposite for the user. This would beat most cameras that Peni and May knew that they had encountered. The only way they would know for sure is to test it out in a real situation.

Gwen knew the classic signs of someone shutting down considering it could be her PHD thesis given a choice. After last time she thought they were in a good place. Something was eating him up and now that she felt closer to him than ever, she would get to the bottom of this. But she had no idea how to get someone to talk.

"Alright everyone so the plan is we go in invisible track Sp/dr with this goober, find the villain of the day beat the shit out of him since talking never works with these guys and stop their plans" Peter spoke up. "Did I Miss anything?"

"The monologue wasn't necessary" Spider noir added.

"Hence the "did I miss anything" part" Peter replied.

"Well in that case you should have added the part where something will definitely go wrong with the plan and we have to improvise from there."

"Now we're good" Peter agreed.

Miles walked up to May "Mrs May I told my parents I'm crashing here so if they call.."

"It's Ok Miles I understand I'll think of something. But you could tell them, Gwen told me they seem more understanding than I ever was about this whole superhero business."

"I'll think about it' Miles shrugged while wondering about how his father would actually react to it.

 _In the Miles's household._

"Miles is spending time with Karate kid again isn't he?" Miles's mother asked frustratingly.

"Yes honey you need to accept that fact now. Look I need to go out for some groceries go watch a movie or something. Honestly he's going to think you're becoming clingy."

"Yeah I'm still going to call him in a few hours. Go before I do the same with you."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Oh you love it when I get possessive of you so put those puppy eyes away."

Jefferson laughed and turned to leave when his phone went off.

"Davis " he answered.

"Jeff we need you in the precinct now..It's Wilson Fisk. He's gone…"

"What do you mean gone? How did he escape?" he replied blood nearly leaving his face.

" He just disappeared from his cell. Now get here asap" the line went off.

He put his phone down and took a deep breath

"Everything ok?"

"It's the precinct I need to go."

"You told me that priority shifts were every other week so this weekend must be off for you." She stopped him grabbing his arm.

"When did you become a cop?"

" I learnt from the best. Now who was it?"

"It's Kingpin he's escaped. Look keep this with you, I'll call you later" he handed her a spare revolver. Considering Kingpin went toe to toe with the new Spiderman he knew keeping a gun was not being paranoid for her safety. He rushed out reaching his car and drove off. He briefly wondered if he should call Miles but decided to let it go and check on him in a few hours.

Meanwhile outside Brooklyn a portal opened and five superheroes jumped in simultaneously expanding and contracting in a vortex of colours while bumping into each other as they all flew in random directions. Finally all of them landed in a heap on top of each other with Miles being crushed in the bottom.

"You know if we live long enough we need to warn future generations of traffic during inter dimensional travel" Spider noir said as he got up.

"and that it feels like you're in a blender" Peter added.

Miles got up and finally managed to look around. All he could see were green pastures as far as he could see.

"Guys are we in the right plaaaaace.." he managed to say before Miles started to glitch violently and fell to the ground. He stopped as the others gathered around him.

"Why is this happening?" Then the others started to glitch as well.

It continued for several seconds before everything around them started to fade and a cylindrical structure started to come in shape above them.

They got up and heard a low grumbling noise coming behind them. They followed the noise and reached a room where all kinds of equipment, tools that were unfamiliar surrounded them.

In the centre of the room, the still form of King pin lay asleep.

 **NOTE:- Thanks to the reviewer Kentucky Wallflower for pointing out the mistake. Also, relax Kingpin is not the main person our heroes go up against but he has a role to play. Enjoy**


	13. Chapter 13

**Familiar faces**

All of them turned invisible seeing him there. "How is he here?" Gwen asked quietly while Miles looked around at the other equipment lying around them. Peter approached the sleeping form ready to attack but he seemed to be deep sleep.

"At least he can't harm us" he whispered.

"Guys you need to take a look at this" Peni spoke up gesturing towards the screens. Everyone turned around at that and saw the faceless men walking around in the centre of the familiar cylindrical structure. One by one they morphed into the Spider- People. All of them saw the fight at the collider from King Pin's point of view right up to Miles holding Peter from the edge and letting him fall into the vortex at the collider.

Gwen and Peter internally cursed themselves for not staying back as they saw Miles getting his ass handed to him.

Miles waited for himself to get back up and finish the fight. Except this time King Pin managed to land a killing blow to Miles. They all watched as the accelerator went critical eventually bringing together several realities together in a bright cocktail of colours. But then the accelerator blew up killing every scientist in the building including Miles's dad. The colours blared at the screens before the scene changed to the green pastures they landed in. This time there were a couple of houses nearby in the distance as Kingpin emerged from one of them with a surprisingly tender smile on his face. One arm was around his wife Vanessa and other around his son Richard. Then the scene slowly faded away.

They all stood there silently taking it all in. Peni was already scanning the place trying to find out any signal of her friend but was just watching Miles who had closed his eyes, fingers clenched tightly together. Peter was feeling conflicted what to do next while Gwen didn't even realize she was holding Miles's other hand as she spoke up.

"I'm so sorry Miles we should have stayed, fought alongside you." Gwen started to speak her eyes shining with unshed tears.

"Guys look out" Spider noir whispered as multiple faceless men walked towards the room. All of them quickly scattered into several corners. Their suits also included camouflage properties that allowed them to blend into the surroundings. The men walked in and started to access the data collected from the simulation as they probed all the equipment surrounding them and put it on their head. Different parts of them lit up as they stood perfectly still. Not a single movement could be heard except the heartbeats of the heroes.

It was quite a while when it became obvious that they and Kingpin weren't going to move from their respective positions.

All of the superheroes found a vent in the next room and climbed into it as quietly as possible their presence not noticeable to the others in the room.

"What the hell was that?" Miles asked as he squeezed his way between Peter and Spider noir.

"When Kingpin was hitting you he wanted to end you, in that simulation you ended up dead and the multiverse collapses and he ends up with his family. Maybe it was showing all the scenarios that could play out." Peter suggested trying to understand the implications.

"Why would Kingpin want to know how it plays out? Is he trying to build another accelerator here?" Gwen asked.

"How did he even end up here? Peni how's it going with the tracker. We need to find whoever owns this facility in the meantime and get some answers. Wait where are you going?" Spider noir asked as Peni wiggled his way out the vent. Ignoring the protests from the others she waited for the men to leave before going to the nearest monitor to track Sp/dr. She came across several rooms in the facility that were holding areas, unauthorised except for key personnel.

"I have a location. We'll take the vent it'll lead us somewhere underground where he'll be there. They seemed to have disabled him so the tracker may not work. Let's go."

"Woah hold on we're just going to leave him there?" Miles asked.

"He seemed to be pretty out of it. Let's go we'll get him later" Peter added.

All of them crawled through the shaft following Peni, Miles meanwhile was replaying what he just saw over and over again in his head realizing how close he had been to death and back. Peter and Gwen both questioning that they should have stayed back and helped him instead feeling conflicted about the whole situation. They all crawled in silence for several minutes when they started to hear noises below them and the path came to a dead end.

"We're close" Spider noir murmured.

They looked down through the opening to see business men and women walking around in various directions chatting with each other. It seemed like a regular day in an office. But looking at the cameras and a closer look at their attire they seemed more like reporters.

Peni pulled out a mike and earphones hoping to catch a drift of the conversation

"..Apparently there was a test…he managed to create…" a loud screeching noise came from the mike disrupting it. Everyone looked around towards the source of noise.

"Sorry forgot to turn it off" someone from the back spoke up.

"That was close" Gwen whispered.

All superheroes entered the room and crawled across the ceiling to where the crowd was small. They landed on the floor still invisible to anyone else. Suddenly the voices stopped as a man entered the room.

Peter's breath caught in his throat as he saw Benjamin Parker walk into the stage. He looked sideways at Spider-noir and imagined him having a similar reaction as well under enlarged goggles.

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen as you remember from last night's presentation with the board and our announcement online I hope you all are more up to speed on the progress our work has made in this area. We are closer to independent thought than we have previously imagined which would not only make significant strides in improving mental health but also diagnosing disorders way before they occur."

He paused before continuing" Now I have assembled you all here to start spreading the word. We are closer than ever to creating the world that you all desire. The world that we all aspire to live in. One free from the tyranny of mental turmoil. Everyday people living ordinary lives receiving an opportunity to experience something extraordinary. A chance to experience real happiness. But this requires your participation as well. "

A round of applause occurred before the man asked if there were any questions.

"Sir what's the plan once these experimental prototypes that you talked about develop sentience? How do you plan on dealing with them?" one of the men asked.

The man thought for a second before replying. "Think of them as a new born once that happens. The first set of emotions they feel will be the ones from the external stimulus of our environment, the tender love and comfort of parents combined with medical help and that is what we intend to do. Are there risks to the program? Absolutely. But dealing with this kind of discourse is what we are trying to solve. All the more important for everyone

"We are talking about directly messing with people's emotions here. What are the effects of prolonged access to this perfect world you just described?" a woman reporter asked.

" I never said it was perfect I said it was extraordinary. The whole idea is once the user goes through with the experience he/she will have the strength to cope with the aftermath in the real world."

"Mr Parker could you elaborate on the addiction problems that patients suffer and the subsequent withdrawals from that your competitors are struggling with?"

"That is proprietary information but we have tested it on some of our patients and we have had promising results. We have to confirm of course but we will be able to give more concrete answers really soon."

A few more questions were directed at him to which he gave short directed answers or simply dodged it effectively. The speech ended with a pledge for everyone to participate in the trials and even healthier people, for those willing to go the extra mile, to experience recreation as well.

Peter and Spider-noir stare at their dead uncle's counterpart throughout wondering what else life was going to throw at them which they could just have to swallow and move on. Miles looked at them and he knew that look instantly. It was the one he imagined he had when he found out about uncle Aaron. He wondered if they were also having the same thoughts as he was. He was not one to dwell on what if's too much but with what he saw back in the room and the presence of so many other universes he wondered if he could have done better. But what ifs are pointless in the face of imminent disaster. You either act instantly or you die. He noticed Gwen was also not leaving his side almost as if she was afraid he would be gone or something.

All the superheroes followed Ben silently as he exited the room, going through a long corridor, passing a lot of memorabilia that looked more like a cult than the official businessman vibe he put out. They passed through several corridors when he reached an elevator.

All of them followed him inside giving him a wide berth as they occupied the back of the elevator. It went down a couple of floors before a bunch of scientists entered talking to each other. A couple of floors later some technicians and what looked like blue collar workers occupied the rest of the elevator.

Gwen and Miles were standing next to each other with the wall with Peter and Spider-noir on either side of them with Peni in front of them with no space in between them to accommodate everyone else. Gwen kept looking between the two Peters and Miles but did not speak.

Once everyone had left the elevator the man inserted a key in the elevator. It went underground and opened to a bunker that surpassed even the underground facility of King pin's accelerator. Thousands of people were working in small cubicles. The faceless men were there being tested on and moving heavy machinery around. The man finally made his way to a big chamber that scanned his entire body. There were sub levels within the bunker as well probably each dedicated for different purposes.

"Peni are you sure he's here somewhere?" Spider-noir finally spoke up looking for something to punch.

"Yeah I can sense him it's getting stronger, oh and we can't get past that" Peni finished as he looked at the familiar all body scanner that led the man inside.

"Why not?"

"I have a similar one installed in my lair it basically equipped to scan a lot of things including difference between human and spider DNA. Let's look from out here".

All of them huddled around the window to see.

Several scientists were working In there shouting readings, running algorithms and taking blood samples from the main test subject who happens to be Peter Porker. All of them watched shocked for a second to find him here as he lay still with a helmet attached to his head. From the distance he didn't look like he was being tortured at least but still..

"How is he here? We need to get him out" Miles then went to break the glass before Peter caught his hand.

"Look around you we barely managed to take one of these freaks, we can't fight so many of them of, We need the element of surprise, now how do we do that?

"I designed that thing to be impervious.."Peni spoke up before Gwen punched the glass destroying the hand print that deactivated the scanner as well. "never mind"… she finished as they opened the door and climbed into the ceiling. Ben's back was turned, the other men fell like dominoes to the floor as they were hit by darts that knocked them out except for him who managed to catch the dart.

"I should have expected you all here but I never thought you'd be here soon." He said after turning around. There was no response and he couldn't see anyone. He took a couple of steps forward and then he suddenly turned around and caught an invisible arm. Then before he could react a sharp blow to the head knocked him out. The superheroes tied him up.

"Alright let's get him out." Peni proceeded to disable everything she could get her hands on to bring Spider-ham out of his slumber.

 _In 1933_

Max was taking in the carnage in the house which included broken furniture, broken windows, and demolished walls. A tree had fallen on the ground as well. The neighbours had called reporting gunshots and weird flashes of light. Max was wondering what to tell the chief as he had been ordered to contact Spiderman which he couldn't considering he was on another planet! He wondered which planet he was on.

He then started to geek out a bit on the possibilities of alien life while walking around the apartment when he came across a broken photo frame of a young man. It was an old photo of a young man and what Max initially thought was the man's father. But upon closer inspection he remembered something suddenly. The old man looked disturbingly familiar to a victim to the Goblin's case his chief once told him about. He was asked to review old case files and he had seen him somewhere but he couldn't quite place him.

He picked up the photo and looked at it for several moments when it struck him. It was Benjamin Parker, a world war one pilot who met a gruesome death at the hands of the Enforcers. Spider man had taken them down in a matter of days after that and given the state there were found in custody the next day it was one of his more violent escapades.

His instincts were screaming at him that Spider man and Peter Parker were connected somehow. He knew for a fact that either Spider man had taken care of this mess or he had already left the planet before this happened. But Peter Parker had left the city back then and now all of a sudden a freak incident happens in his uncle's house?

He was conflicted about his next step, obligated between having to report this as an officer and potentially revealing secrets about Spider man. He now knew one secret about him not even the chief was aware of which made him more trustworthy in his eyes. Would this betray that trust somehow?

He had a couple of days to himself and courtesy of the chief due to their recent victory against the cartel and his injury. All he had to do was give the chief one call and It would be out of his hands.

No Spider man was out there battling otherworldly threats he could not in good conscience sit idly by.

He decided to contact Peter Parker just for his peace of mind.

 _Back in the unknown universe_

" _AHHH! Let me go….."_ Spider-ham screamed as he blinked and opened his eyes. As his surroundings became more clear five superheroes came into the picture.

"Wha..what's going on?" he said seeing the unconscious man and looked back at them. "How did you guys find me?"

"Well we are here looking for Sp/dr and found you here. What were they doing to you?" Miles asked.

" It was really strange they kept replaying my memories. The first time I crawled out of the swamps to realise there was a big wide world out there, my first meal, tasting blood for the first time!" seeing the others grimace he paused and said "Oh What? I was a Spider remember?" the first time I starved, and just now when I was bit by the radioactive Pig. But it felt more than that."

"Why?" Peter asked.

"They kept freezing those specific moments in time and it felt like my senses were enhanced even more than usual like I was more connected with everything than I ever felt before. The fear, hunger, pain and desperation…." Wait what happened to him?" He asked the last bit to Peni.

After listening to the whole story he spoke up "these guys have the ability to control time, they managed to catch other animals, and we have to find them as well. But first" he jumped on Miles who barely managed to catch him giving him a tight hug then jumping at the others and giving them a hug as well. "I missed you guys so much." He then stepped back beaming at them for a moment before becoming serious. "What next?"

"I say we wake this guy up and finally get some answers" Spider noir interjected.

"You guys make him talk while I'll see what I can find from here" Peni told them already searching for more clues in the systems around her.

They locked down the room finding the colloquial "Override key" named by Peter.

Benjamin Parker slowly opened his eyes to see that he was tied. He tried to move his fingers but he couldn't. Plus he knew he couldn't take on the five superheroes glaring at him including one who was nibbling at his clothes before swiftly ripping them off leaving him only with his underpants. The other superheroes looked at him disgusted for a moment before Gwen spoke up.

"Yeah that was to ensure you cannot contact anyone. Why don't you start talking and tell us what's really going on?"

"How much did you hear out there?" Ben asked.

"Everything but if "medicinal benefits" was all there was to it then you wouldn't have kidnapped people against their will"

Ben looked at them considering his options. He knew they couldn't escape but he had no way of signalling anyone else.

"Well I could show you if you'll allow me" he said with a smile.

"Ok youngsters turn around, you don't want to see what I'm about to do" Spider-noir moved ahead grabbing Ben by his collar letting his anger out when Peter stopped him.

"Not now we may need him later" he whispered having a feeling what he wanted to do..

"Yeah we've seen our first R rated movie already so you might as well go ahead" Gwen said losing her patience a bit."

"Yeah before you do anything drastic to me you should know that the new shift of people are going to come in anytime now and that includes the minions my boss sent as well will. Now you may be superheroes but you can't take them all by yourself" Ben spoke confidently.

After a long moment but was actually a couple of seconds they agreed

"Fine" Spider noir let him go before punching him out again.

"I just found them. They are being held in the fifth level of this bunker along with him" Peni said when their Spider-senses went off.

The superheroes activated their invisibility suits and carried Ben outside only to see two faceless men about 50 yards away walking in their direction.


	14. Chapter 14

**Escalation**

They exited quickly and started to run in the opposite direction hoping the cloaks disguised everything. The bunker elevator was still far away and they couldn't use their abilities as it could give them away but the sounds of feet meeting the ground caught the attention of one of them. He immediately scanned the area and saw some interference in front of him. He saw it moving fast but couldn't exactly make out who was behind it and started to run towards it.

"Guys I think he's onto us," Gwen spoke up as they turned around to see him really close reaching out for them. They jumped in the air latching themselves to the fifth level and started to climb to find a way in. Suddenly two strong arms managed to catch Peter and Miles's feet making them loose their grip on the wall. Ben slipped from their arms as he fell down with the faceless man catching him with one arm. Then Peter kicked him hard with his free foot making him fall all the way down.

"I thought you said these would work." Miles shouted.

"Just because I make some toys doesn't make me an expert in everything Miles." She spat back.

"Break the glass.." Peter yelled before a couple of bullets did the job as they held on to the edge of window as people inside the room kept firing at them. Peter threw a smoke grenade inside and every one entered the level and Gwen kicked the desk knocking the men in front of them out.

"STAND DOWN!"

The firing stopped at once. The heroes stilled. Everyone turned to look at Peter who shrugged confused.

The smoke cleared after several moments revealing scientists, workers and other people what looked to be guards all pointing guns at them. The man walking up to them was none other than Peter Parker.

 _In 1933_

Max was confused. He tried to find any information he could regarding Peter Parker but so far all his leads came up empty. His last place of residence was listed in the files and it was apparently the same house which was broken into half. He tried calling Peter Parker "private eye's" phone number but no one was picking up. There was no other living relative of Peter as per the records as well.

"What are you doing here?" the chief entered asking.

"Nothing sir, I just uh..thought that there was a lead but" he looked at the chief "it didn't amount to anything. I'm trying to locate the owner of the house as we speak." He lied.

"Hmm that's a bad wound you have there. You could give the case to someone else and you know enjoy your vacation. You're going to get back in with those scoundrels later anyways."

"Yes I thought that I'll be thorough before giving it to someone else. I'll be leaving now. " He said quickly before covering all the files and putting it back. He decided to leave to avoid more questions especially regarding the connection he suspected between Peter Parker and Spiderman.

" _Wait why am I thinking of protecting him again? Didn't he go to the chief first regarding this fabricated woman Identity first?"_

"Max hello?."

"Right sorry sir I think I will go now"

"Before you go do you think this needs Spiderman's attention?"

"If it does I will pass the information along to him sir" he replied with a sincere smile hoping he doesn't push him.

"Alright enough business out of you young man. Go take some actual rest before I change my mind."

Max left the building after saying goodbye. He decided to go visit the telephone company to get information on Peter given that he hasn't gone to work the past couple of days before he decided to question the chief for his own sense of peace.

"Sir did you know about the woman?"

"Know what?"

"That she is not real"

The chief came close to Max with a blank look on his face. He reached close to him and sniffed.

"Did you drink before coming here? Of course she's not "real". She was brought in by the big guy to infiltrate the cartel. We gave her fake Identities and everything." he said in a low whisper

Max heaved a sigh of relief and gulped before sputtering. "Sir I just thought… I thought that maybe you knew more about her whole situation than me".

"Well no I don't….Now seriously get out."

"Right" he decided to turn around and leave not wanting to push it further.

Max walked out briskly reaching for his car and looked at the piece of paper which had the address of the telephone company. He decided to try to contact anyone who had tried to hire Peter Parker as a private eye by looking into all communications going towards his phone number. He supposed since the chief was retiring anyways he wouldn't be present in the office later in the day so wouldn't question his suspicious movements. He would do so with a smile on his face now that he knew that he had the utmost trust of the superhero.

 _In Miles's world_

Jefferson reached the precinct. One of the scientists who had been working on the accelerator but had been let go due to excusable circumstances was more than willing to help in exchange for protection against King Pin and the Sinister Six and dropping of any charges that may implicate him in the future. The knowledge that King Pin had escaped left him unnerved so he basically never left the office preferring to stay there.

"So what's the prognosis doc?" Jeff asked.

"You were right sir. The security cameras were scrambled. But analysing the damage we saw trace amounts of dark matter that were consistent with the readings the day the accelerator exploded. The amount of residue particles in the cell was too high for it to be coincidence. I suspect a portal was indeed opened to another dimension."

"Dear God you're telling me we can search him all over the city and not find him anywhere?" he said frustrated.

The scientist nodded slowly and then added" Actually sir It's possible he may not even be on this earth."

Jefferson's frustration was replaced by fear. Whoever had taken Kingpin clearly had resources at the very least like he had. It's possible they had people with superpowers working for them. If that was the case then simply running around the city looking for him won't be enough l.

"King pin was looking into other dimensions right?" He knew from the investigation on the collider explosion and from Dr Olivia's research that there were other dimensions, earths like this one.

"Yes I believe his goal was to connect with a counterpart of his wife and son. It's why he risked everything for the collider."

Jefferson was surprised. He certainly wasn't expecting that.

"That's where the other Spider-men came from? Security footage revealed a total of 6 superheroes near the accelerator right?" he realized after pausing for several moments

He nodded again knowing there was no point in lying now.

"Is there any way of contacting them? Was anyone trying to bring them here?" thinking that maybe someone could be after the heroes.

"No sir they've probably returned to their own dimensions .We would need to open a portal of our own to reach them and without the energy levels of the accelerator we cannot open one."

"Then how did King pin escape?"

The scientist simply shrugged

Jeff didn't it. He knew that this would probably require the help of Spiderman considering he was the one who caught Kingpin the last time. He hated having to rely on a superhero for a job but having witnessed the fight between Spiderman and King Pin, he knew that the police would be out of their depth here. Especially if equally dangerous people with ill-intentions were involved.

"What are you going to do?"

He said nothing as he walked outside the precinct thinking how he could get in touch with the Spiderman. The last time Spiderman managed to hand King Pin on a silver platter without any help from the police so he could be investigating now. But the information hasn't been made public yet. But he also knew that Spider-man could bring them leads that the police could not. In fact it was one of the reasons he had hated Spider-man so much.

He sighed deeply before wondering if Mrs May knew about any of this. Their family had been laying low and staying out of the press except people all over the city visited her house asking for photos and autographs. Considering her losses she probably would want to be left alone but the other superheroes were from another dimension they would also want to stay hidden, It was a long shot but it was worth trying…

He decided to give her a visit.

 _In the Parker household_

May was lazily flicking through the channels wondering how her "unruly children" were doing. She then stumbled across a scene where a severely good looking guy was passionately kissing an unbelievably attractive woman. She watched the scene for a few minutes as they started to grope each other roughly. The man lifted the woman with his bare hands while maintaining contact and a loud _rip_ came from the TV as he attacked her pulse point and May pictured herself in the woman's place and Ben in the man's place..

She snapped back to reality as a broken part of the wall fell sown. " _I really need to put myself out there_ " she thought before getting up to clean the house.

Her phone went off. It was Mary. She smiled and answered.

"Here I thought you'd forgotten all about me"

"No it's called being busy. Not everyone can sit around the house looking for dates online" Mary Jane teased.

"Well that's what old people do when their own family ignores them. You should set a better precedent, otherwise people may talk. Neglect doesn't make for good press."

"Wow really that's where you're going after threatening those kids away the other day. You're hardly a role model for good behaviour."

"Well when you're dealing with children who never listen to you can you blame me?"

Mary laughed out loud. The past was still fresh on her mind but the mother-daughter like banter never went away. She kept herself busy but always made time for her.

"How you holding up?"

"Great I was just watching a hot couple on Tv go at it when you interrupted me"

Mary groaned before replying "Do your worst I'm a grownup now . BTW I'm fine as well."

"Well they were making out hard on the table before he ripped her clothes off.."

"Alright alright enough" Mary stopped her as May started to laugh.

They talked for a while with May leaving out the part about superheroes from other dimensions. She honestly did not know how Mary would feel about another Peter Parker from another universe. She knew it wouldn't be that bad but figured if someday she found out on her own May would tell her. After all it wasn't her secret to tell. She understood that lying and hiding the truth were two different things.

She was cleaning when the doorbell rang multiple times. May frowned and became alert. Getting her baseball bat she opened the reinforced bullet proof door to see Mr. Jefferson.

"Officer what brings you buy? She asked surprised lowering her bat.

Jefferson saw the destruction behind the house. "Did something happen here Mrs May? You should file a report."

 _In the other universe_

All the heroes simply stared at the face of Peter Parker and back at their own Peter as both of them started a stare off contest of who could go the longest without blinking.

Finally the other Peter spoke "You must have questions. Ask them."

"You.. are me..how..why.?" Peter closed his eyes and steadied himself for a few moments before Spider Ham spoke up.

"Where are the other animals and why did you kidnap us?" he asked in a voice with poorly concealed rage.

"Because I need you that's why. Your universe is the only one where animals evolved differently from others. We need to know how it happened."

"How could you become this? Peter Parker is supposed to be.." Miles shouted angrily.

"What a superhero? Yeah how's that working out for you all? Tell me are your cities safer ever since you became a superhero?" the other Peter cut him off.

"Just cut to the chase" Peter snapped hating to see an alternate version of himself that turned out like this.

" I can show you."

"Yeah we're not just going to follow you now are we?" Spider-noir spoke up.

"I don't think you have a choice. You might have gotten in but how do you plan on leaving the base? Plus you came for her friend as well" the other Peter spoke gesturing towards Peni greatly angering her as she advanced only to be stopped by Gwen with a knowing look.

" Uh Dr Parker? Is that necessary." One of the guards spoke up cautiously.

"Yes they need to understand for themselves. Now get back to work." Dr Parker retorted. He turned back and asked. "So what's it going to be?"

They knew he had them. Their silence was enough for him.

"I believe you all saw Wilson Fisk right? The one you called King Pin in your world. A colourful nick name I might add" he added taking a computer and typing at a monitor to show a simulation of Wilson with his wife and son, enjoying a quiet meal with them. The simulation then warped and shifted to a happy moment In his life where he was playing with a younger Richard. Then it was back at the accelerator and this time he managed to run the accelerator properly and get back with his wife and son.

"As you can see from the simulation this is pretty much his goal in life. Getting back his wife and son. Of course the side effect of that was he nearly destroyed the multiverse. Kudos for stopping that Miles." He smiled approvingly in his direction.

"Yeah How do you know me?" Miles asked,

"and all of us" Gwen added

"You've already met them. I believe one of them is in captivity at your base? We are still working on an official name for them as they will fulfil a lot of things once we are finished with them but you can call them "Androids" if you like. He said curling his fingers.

"So what? You're trying to create alternate dimensions or something?" Peni asked trying to wrap her head around what she was seeing.

"By giving King Pin what he wants?" Peter finished.

"Precisely but not the way you think. What if he could live his entire life out in a world where the things that matter the most to him worked out. Now I can't create universes out of thin air but I do have the resources to create a virtual world where he gets what he wants."

" Is it me or this sounds eerily similar to the matrix?" Miles whispered to Gwen who nodded in agreement.

"You think he's trying to take over the world with machines?" she asked in return smiling a bit despite their tense situation.

"No it's not the matrix" Dr Parker interjected irritated that everyone jumps to end of the world conclusions whenever dealing with highly advanced scientific ideas completely ignoring their upsides.

" The architect's problem in the matrix was to resolve the issue of choice. In these simulations King pin is choosing the manner in which he could have gotten his wife and son back. In other words he gets to choose his own version of a world. The matrix doesn't have that."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Spider noir asked.

"Through his emotions. Here" Dr Parker handed a helmet towards them. They all looked at it wondering what it was. " It's just a simulation to give you a feel of what it means…

Suddenly the lights in the room went out including the monitors as the superheroes started to fight l shoving anyone who got in their way. Dr Parker advanced on them when a punch to the face send him tumbling before he swiftly got back up and engaged Spider-noir in a fist fight. They were trading kicks and blows with each other as Spider-noir caught an arm and pushed back as Dr Parker took this opportunity to grunt " you're..uh..making…a huge mistake" and then head butted Spider-noir that left him reeling.

" I didn't think I could be more disgusted at myself until today" he shouted and countered with a swift kick to the face. " But I'll settle for breaking every bone in your body " as he gripped his throat.

Peter was heading towards the exit and threw anything he could get his hands on to stop the firing of bullets in their direction, but more assailants kept entering the room.

"Remember what we practised?" he said looking at Miles and Gwen as he jumped to the ceiling turning invisible.

Miles and Gwen shared a look with each other as they turned invisible.

"You ready to try it?" Gwen asked

"Let's do this" He agreed as he closed his eyes and felt every muscle, every nerve ending in his body. He had trained with Gwen and Peter once and nearly decapitated both of them the last time but he had been working on this for a while now. He tried to redirect as much energy as he could into his fists as Gwen webbed two assailants in front of them and hung them from the ceiling. He did it for a few seconds as blue sparks came out of his body as he opened his eyes and felt the power surge within him. He touched Gwen as he channelled some of the energy into her arm. She gritted her teeth trying to channel that energy towards her other wrist she felt the synapses in her body boost the energy of the blast as both of them punched the ground as hard as they could just as Spider noir managed to jump to the ceiling.

A bright spark of light diverged the moment their fists made contact with the ground throwing everyone backwards breaking every piece of equipment in the room and rendering them unconscious. Dr Parker reacted a second late when he felt a shock to his system and a second later a sharp blow to the head before landing face first on the ground. Cracks appeared on the floor but thankfully it was sturdy enough to take the hit and not bring the whole unit down.

Peni had lost her patience. She knew Sp/dr was nearby, she could feel him and taking a good luck around she knew they could try to overpower everyone and make a run for it and grab him. She took one look at Spider-ham and knew he was thinking the same thing. She fiddled with the EMP in her pocket figuring they could be used to get out of the bunker if the "Androids" did attack them. So when Dr Parker extended a helmet towards them she activated the EMP taking out the lights in the room.

That was a couple of moments ago. Spider-ham and her found themselves in another room where the animals were locked up. In the centre of the room a couple of scientists were huddled at a scientist simply observing it. Seconds later they were tied up and finally Peni saw that the SP/dr in the corner hood open with needles being pointed at the Spider inside a small glass panel beside him. She struggled with the controls frantically before opening the glass pane. The spider immediately started moving towards her and in that moment she heard an explosion from behind.

"Go" he said as he opened a portal to his world. The animals stared in confusion but they trusted their hero so one by one they exited the universe.

Miles was exhausted. It had taken a lot out of him and he was in no condition to fight. He was stumbling along being held by Peter on one side and Gwen on the other as Spider-noir was in the front of them fighting anyone who came in their way.

Then several "Androids" landed right in front of them and held them down. Benjamin Parker walked up to them "Since you weren't willing to hear us out, I guess you'll have to see for yourself…as they lost consciousness.

 **Hey guys I'm back with another Update. I tried to use Miles's venom blast ability in a different way here and I think it turned out Ok. Enjoy and let me know :)**


	15. NOTE 2

**Hey guys so sorry about the delay. Super busy with college projects and assignments which have taken up a bulk of my time. I will be back within a few days with regular updates with the story and more surprises. Thanks for your patience everyone**


	16. Chapter 16

_In Miles's world_

May steadied herself. Between covering up for Peter and his awkward attempts at lying she had learnt to keep a neutral face being on both sides of the "interrogation" that usually followed in these situations.

"Yeah I'm having some renovation work done. I'm not feeling too well so fancied a break. What brings you by?"

"I'm sorry to hear that. I actually have a few questions about an ongoing case, can I come in?"

May nodded not sure why she had to be involved.

Jefferson entered the house slowly taking everything in. It didn't look like renovation from condition of it. There were cracks in the wall and back door had a very noticeable body sized hole through it.

"Are you sure nothing happened here?" he asked pointing towards it "I'm kind of obligated to report this Mrs May."

May paused and said "Wait." She entered her room and placed a palm over a screen revealing a whole cupboard filled with props of her own and brought out a bunch of wires, a round metallic object that was actually a toy bomb but was a grenade along with a detonator. Looking around she brought a few more props, closed the room and casually carried them out and set them in front of the officer.

Jefferson raised an eyebrow "What's all this?"

"Officer I'm summoned, hounded and called upon all kinds of people who try to take away the little bit of peace that I want to have for myself in my remaining years. So excuse me if sometimes take extreme measures to get rid of some of them who think I exist to satisfy their need for gossip". Seeing his widened eyes she responded "Look no one got hurt, I just scared them away. They kept bugging me to tell them stories about Spiderman It just got a little out of hand."

Jeff relaxed a bit but was not convinced completely. He decided to change tactics.

"Ok Mrs May I'm actually here to talk about case but it's not been made public yet. But we need as much help as we can in this and given the emergence of the other superheroes I was wondering.."

May cut him off saying "I don't want anything to do with that world officer. I thought my statements were pretty clear on that stance."

"I completely understand that however this concerns.."

"Mr Jefferson I don't think.."

"It's King Pin. He's escaped" Jefferson spoke up stopping her.

She was silent for a couple of moments processing this new piece of information, wondering what to say next. She was alarmed to learn of her escape. Schooling her features she asked.

"What?...How is that possible? "Why are you here officer shouldn't you be out there trying to catch him that bastard responsible for the death of my nephew."

"Speaking of your nephew it's kind of my reason to visit in there. The new Spiderman was responsible for catching King Pin as you may know. I hate to admit it but we may need his help." he stopped catching her gaze. "I was wondering if you had some information about his whereabouts since he was the last person to take him down."

"What makes you think I know him? ", she turned and sat down here.

"We don't have any other way to contact him"

"I hear you, but.."

"I don't mean to be rude but I just told you I have no idea about him. "

A mild alarm went off within the pocket of Jefferson's pocket. He pulled it out while maintaining eye contact with May and held it out in front of her. May looked at it and looked back at him with a blank expression giving nothing away.

"This is a device that detects the presence of otherworldly radiation or some form of radiation that didn't leak into this world or something I don't really remember the details that kind of went over my head… The point is a portal to another world was opened here. Worlds where King Pin has probably escaped. I now have probable cause to search this place top to bottom without a warrant since you denied possible knowledge of an ongoing investigation but I don't want to do that. So do you want to keep denying everything or can we have an honest conversation?

May froze not having expected this at all. The fact that the ongoing investigation had progressed to the point where they were aware of the alternate dimensions was something that slipped her mind. She didn't know much about the new threat but she knew a lot about King Pin including the fact that he was a formidable opponent…

"So are you going to say anything or should I call this in?.."

 _If I don't say anything he will try to go to the other world himself"_ May thought to herself, and that was the bit that scared her. She didn't know what the superheroes were going through right now but she couldn't in good conscience send unprepared police officers after them…

"No"

"What?"

"I said no. You can search this place all you want but like I said before I have no idea where he went. I can help you look into this alternate world that he went into. Peter was looking into the multiverse alongside King Pin so I can help with that. Will probably explain that radiation too". She figured the hand held versions could pick up the radiation but not exactly pinpoint the exact universe they landed in. The police really had no way of getting there. But there was also the question of getting King Pin back. She decided to stall as long as she could for now.

Seeing the stunned face on the officer she continued.

"Shall we begin?"

He decided to follow her seemingly out of questions at this point not noticing she tapped just above her elbow sending an alert to the team.

 _In the other universe_

Spider ham and Peni turned around just in time to avoid the shots as the last of the animals escaped from the portal. They turned invisible and jumped to the ceiling.

Peni moved slowly, both of them looking at the men taking everything around them before an "android" jumped on top of them grabbing their necks and holding them down gripping their necks. They tried to struggle for a while as Peni reached over and managed to activate another EMP and both kicked him at the same time. He stumbled a few feet back before regaining his footing seconds later to see the officers bullet bouncing off of him. He froze as bullets bounced off his body.

"What just happened?" Peni asked

" I don't know" Spider-Ham said. "Let's go"

They walked out past the guards and saw that the unconscious bodies of Peter, Gwen and Spider Noir were being carried by the "androids". They looked at each other and started following them.

"Peter Peter can you hear me?" Benjamin tapped on his nephew's cheek and saw as he blinked a couple of times before opening his eyes. He looked around for a couple of moments before focusing on his uncle.

"Wha..what happened? The other Peter…where is he?" he groaned and sat up.

"They put up a hell of a fight but we got them…"

"Good.."

" Do you really want to go back in there? You were nearly killed the last time you went in there. Maybe send your minions in there this time? Test them out...

"You do realize that those "minions" aren't ready yet.."

"You're in no condition to go in there alone"

He got up before a sharp pain made him grab his head and grit his teeth.

"Uhhhh..You're probably right."

Benjamin knew he should try to talk more sense into his level headed nephew but kept quiet for now.

Just then 2 guards came running into the room " Sir you need to come see this"

Dr. Parker looked at their fear stricken faces and followed them without question.

The "android" was standing perfectly still. He had no facial features so it was difficult to know it's thinking. It was occasionally looking here and there but otherwise made no movement since the bullets intended for Peni and Spider-Ham bounced off of him. This is the state that Dr. Parker finds him in. the "android" moved his face and approached him and stood in front of him.

Dr. Peter stood looking at an expressionless face pondering his next move calculations already running through his head going through different scenarios.

"What are you thinking right now?"

A number of Emojis and pictures of faces with different emotions with that emotion began to appear on the "android's" face one after the other . They were blinking in and out for a few seconds before changing to a different one every time.

Benjamin walked in when Dr Parker turned to him and said "I think it's time".

 _In Miles's world_

As May went down with the detective beside her wondering what was going on in the other universe. She could have stalled any other way but couldn't due to the damn device. She knew logically she was way too old to get involved in any way but witnessing Peter's breakdown was making her rethink some things. She would have to definitely rethink the house, considering the number of times it had broken down. The neighbours nearby knew not to disturb her once Spiderman's identity was revealed but the "weird shenanigans" ineloquently put by one of them from way back continue to happen time and time again. She should..

"He sure had a lot of toys in here" Jefferson staring with a nix of awe and a tone of jealousy with his voice.

" The worst kind of horrors need the best of solutions . Sometimes they're really expensive." She replied.

Jefferson nodded along wondering the possibilities the department could gather if they had access to such tools. He wondered where exactly the new Spiderman lived and whether getting him to collaborate with the police from time to time would be a good idea. He looked at her wondering how much she really knew about this whole situation. He decided to take a different approach.

"That's true, can I ask something? What was he like?"

May looked pensive for a while and didn't say anything

"You don't have to if you don't want..." s

"No it's fine I'm fine. He was just another ordinary kid with extraordinary abilities. I mean I couldn't exactly ground him when he was literally trying to save the world on a regular basis…" she paused with a smile," but in every other way he was just the same. A regular boy who should have lived a longer life."

"How did you let him out there? I mean didn't you try to stop him."

"I did that for every single day for a while before I saw first-hand the threats for myself and realized they would come for us anyways. So I decided to help him and protect in any way I could. I guess you could say it wasn't enough."

"That's not true. I'm sure you did your best."

"It's ok detective I'll uhh..I'll be fine"

He was silent for a few seconds processing that when he changed topics.

"Btw where's Miles and Gwanda?"

 _In the other Universe_

The "android" in question was walking beside Dr. Parker emojis and faces of different emotions still blinking on his face

"Are you sure this isn't just a glitch or overload of some kind?"

"I can't be sure unless I plug him in. You know that already"

Benjamin wanted to argue further with his mentee but knew he was going to only receive retorts in return. He fully supported the vision that his nephew had but that didn't mean he wanted him to lose his life. He may not be human but Benjamin saw the readings that day…

" _Explain that statement again"_

" _I think I can bring MJ back"_

" _You said they weren't ready. Then why the hell were you trying in the first place?" he said cleaning his nephew's puke with worry and grimace on his face._

" _The old way was not working, we tried to feed data sets about the entire neural and biochemical pathways that lead to the formation of emotions based on real live humans but it just wasn't enough. So I went in there thereby introducing my pathways meaning a real human's emotions as the new set of variables that would hopefully yield results. After a lot of tries it happened. Here see for yourself"_

 _Benjamin saw the several outcomes with the data set given there it showed limited deviation from the predictions. Then he saw the last outcome showed the graph deviated a lot from the predicted outcome. It showed her actually trying to survive and making it to the end._

" _You said she survived. It's clear she did not."_

" _She would have if we were better prepared..I don't need you to remind me of that. I know what happened!" he snapped_

 _Benjamin stopped knowing he shouldn't push him with his vitals all over the place. He was silent for a couple of moments "Why would you want to remember her trauma? If you want her back why make her and yourself live through the most painful moment of your lives?" he couldn't help his voice from breaking down. "and ours" he finished looking at Peter in the eye_

" _What do you want from me huh? Bring her back just like she was and not have that that day happen. What's the point of doing all that only for her to suffer again for the rest of her life? I'll tell you how that happens. She finds something different about me starts to question everything."_

 _Peter took a deep breath before continuing" Everything we have done here starts by bringing people to come to terms with their past. That is the starting point we all agreed upon. It's a key part of their personalities. It's their identity.."_

 _Peter coughed after that again and again till blood came out of his mouth. Benjamin helped him to his feet before setting him on the bed stomach turning at his nephew's condition._

 _Peter then spoke after several moments looking up with tears in his eyes "Tell me uncle Ben what's the point of trying to bring her back if she won't even be the same person…"_

 _End of flashback_

Spider-Ham looked at their friends bodies being dragged away.

" Ok I'm going to sneak up there while you.."

"No" Peni whispered before he could even finish.

"What do you mean no?..Just use your EMP's to take them out again.."

"I did that and they got ambushed. Besides this place is crawling with these "androids" what if we get caught too?"

"I'll weasel us out of there, the rules don't apply to me remember?"

"How did they catch you again?"

Spider-Ham moved to speak before her watch went off. "uhh does May need us?"

"No that's red, yellow means she may need us soon. Look we can't take them all, let's just follow them and hope we won't be too late to stop them.

 **NOTE:- Hey guys so sorry for the long delay.~~hands out the best delicacies from around the world as peace offerings!~~ Was super busy with college work, but now I'm back and will update from time to time and finish this fic. WOW 10000 plus reads, Thank you so much for giving this a chance.**

 **I have more ideas for content in the future that I look forward to doing with you all, and I hope you will like them as well :-)**


	17. Chapter 17 part 1

**Technicalities**

 _In the other Universe_

Miles groaned as his eyes opened a millimetre. He tried to move around and saw he wasn't in restraints. He still felt tired pain radiating deep within his muscle fibres all over his body. He tried to move and the pain intensified making him grit his teeth as he opened his eyes. He hazily looked around for a few moments and couldn't see anyone around him.

"Hello?" Miles stumbled to his feet trying to ignore the pain for now. He took a step forward seeing nothing but blankness in front of him. He tried to tap with his feet below and found he could do it. Reaching out with his hands and reaching for nothing but..air? He took a deep breath several times and waited for several moments and concluded the air was breathable. Both Gwen and Peter had taught him the importance of assessing unknown environments especially in the event of a kidnapping. Speaking off..

"Gwen? Peter? anybody?"

Everything around him started warping into several shapes and colours and just as he readied himself to face whomever was coming through it only to find both Gwen and Peter standing in front of him with a solemn expression on their faces. He looked between them and was surprised to find himself in his school dorm room.

He started to feel an intense sadness within himself that he couldn't explain. He tried to think of something else but then a blinding rage overtook everything else as he saw himself tied to a chair and Peter exited the room.

" _No no no this can't be happening"_ Miles thought as he tried to say something out loud but his mouth was muffled. He tried to move but couldn't as he struggled for a while before he saw himself blast his way out of there.

" _What's going on?"_ Miles saw himself fade into nothingness and then seconds later the colours morphed into Gwen standing over him.

" _You're getting better Miles. But you still have several things left to learn. C'mon get up_ " she offered him a hand.

Miles tried his best to open his mouth to say something but it seemed like his body was acting separate from his mind. His mind was saying the words he wanted but his body was moving of his own accord. He took Gwen's hand and stood up and followed her.

" _Am I dreaming?"_ he said remembering this training montage with Gwen and Peter shortly after the accelerator fiasco. They were trying to figure out ways to fight as a coordinated unit.

" _Alright so that was better than last time. You've definitely improved_."

" _Yay I'm getting better" he retorted sarcastically._

 _Thwap_ …

" _Ow what was that for?_ "

" _Well I take my compliment back, you can't even duck that._ " _He stuck out his tongue._

" _Oh that's mature!"_

 _Miles shrugged giving her a cheeky smile only to receive a sharp cut to the abdomen as Gwen pinned him down._

" _You were saying?" Gwen smirked back at him._

Miles then saw himself engaging in hand to hand combat with Gwen and Peter at the same time. He remembered the fight clearly. This was training for scenarios where you would be overwhelmed by your opponents.

" _Case your environment. There will come times where you will stuck in close quarters and will not have any way out." Peter said holding him firmly by his throat while Gwen pinned him down holding his legs in place._

Miles remembered struggling as Peter's grip got tighter. " _Look for a way out"_ . He then quickly changed his thoughts to finding them again as his old self venom blasted them both of them landing several feet apart.

Miles closed his eyes and shook the memory off before getting up. His muscle pain flared a bit at the memory of that blast. _" How do I find them?"_

Miles found another memory unfolding before him but before it could materialise he quickly tried to clear his mind but the memories of who he wanted to reach out to kept replaying in his head. As he tried harder and harder to push thoughts out, it felt like someone was physically resisting him as well.

"Enough" he shouted finally closing in on himself back in his dorm tied to his chair. Miles did not open his eyes and focused fully on himself. The pain of his uncle, the feeling of betrayal and wanting to take revenge.

" _Ok what do I do now?"_

 _Elsewhere_

Gwen woke up with a start. She immediately sat up ready to fight.

"Miles? Peter? Anyone?...Hello…Peni?" she shouted trying to see as far away as she could when the familiar colours were warping around her again. She swallowed the wave of panic she felt. " _No no no this can't be happening."_ She thought, she would not lose another friend not this time, not again. She tried her best to shut down her thoughts regarding the vision of seeing Miles getting repeatedly pummelled to his death out of her head refusing to acknowledge the scene unfolding right in front of her eyes ,literally her worst fears coming to life.

She closed her eyes quickly "Ok Gwen your thoughts are literally coming to life. Just when you thought things couldn't get crazier..Calm down get it together!." She told herself mind racing over a lot of possibilities to find the answer.

"Hey Gwen"…She froze at that voice. The voice she had been aching to hear for so long She nearly choked on her own breath before slowly turning around to see her former best friend staring back at him.

" _It couldn't be"_ Gwen stared in shock and silence at young Peter's face.

"Peter? How?..No who are you really? " she recoiled.

"Hey it's ok it's me" Peter said taking a step back.

"Is this a joke?. Hey Doctor you have to do better than that" she shouted looking anywhere but at him. She struck her foot harshly on the ground hoping it would do something. When the ground did not budge she saw Peter standing right in front of him.

"You're not him" she tried to sound intimidating but her voice faltered. She stared at the face she missed so dearly , every fibre of her being screaming to take him in her arms. It seems Peter read her mind by placing a hand on her cheek and said

"You don't need to hold on to that night anymore"

"SHUT UP! DON'T YOU DARE PRETEND TO BE HIM. YOU'RE NOTHING, JUST A TOOL IN HIS GAME" she bellowed throwing a punch in his face. He recoiled back in shock. "TAKE HIS NAME AGAIN AND I'LL KILL YOU, HEAR ME I WILL KILL YOU…." She fumed shooting a web in his mouth.

"Phtooooo'!" as Peter removed the extra set of webbing from his mouth in his head

Peter removed the webbing from his mouth and stood up rubbing his jaw. "Hell of a right hook. So I guess you are the spider-woman huh? Man I should have guessed it. All those nights.." he was shaking his head smiling. " you were out there I just assumed you were ignoring me or something." He then proceeded to spit everything out and tried to put a shit eating grin on his face.

Gwen was fuming. If the person in front of him did not hold the face of her former best friend she was sure she would have snapped his head or something. She stopped herself looking at the grotesque images swirling in front of her. " _Think Dammit"_ she closed her eyes and tried to clear her head. She couldn't take the bait. She knew it. She took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down.

"Why is this so hard for you to believe?"

"Cut the crap and tell me what you want." She replied sharply

"Peter" shook his head and said "Ok let me rephrase that. What will it take for you to believe me?"

"How about you start with where am I?"

"You're guess is as good as mine. All I remember was a blinding pain below the chest. Then I woke up here."

"I don't believe you."

"Use your super.." Peter made a gesture towards his head with his hand.

"senses. See if I'm lying or not."

Gwen took a deep breath and tuned everything out….She smiled..

 _Somewhere else_

Kingpin woke up . He tugged at his face only to see contraptions of various kinds into his face.

He stared at nothing in particular for a long couple of seconds before a single tear dropped from his face as he recollected the scene he was reliving so long ago..only it was just a few moments ago. He still remembered chasing after his son who had slipped from his arms with food sticking from his mouth, while his wife was recording the whole thing. The sheer joy and utter relaxation of just being in the moment without a single care in the world. The dreams he had that he was trying to build for himself and his family… _His beloved family._

Then he remembered the vision, killing the other Spiderman, reconnecting with his family again.

" _Could it really happen?"_ he thought to himself. " _That's it enough games"_

He wanted answers, and he wanted them now.

"Hey! We gotta talk" he shouted. Two of the "androids" who were also "awake" reached towards him.

"Tell your boss I want to have a word"

One of the "android's" faces morphed into the face of Dr. Parker. "I told you it's going to take time"

"Well then make it happen faster, I'm tired of reliving everything I want and it being ripped away from me"

"I thought I made it clear that was the point. If all goes to plan and it will, you get everything you want that was taken from you. Or are you having second thoughts?"

"don't you dare tell me what I want or don't want." He shouted picking up the "android" by the throat. It then performed a back flip of his face and pinned Kingpin to the ground.

"First of all seriously? And Second of all what choice do you really have?" he breathed into his neck while pinning his legs. Kingpin tried to struggle but couldn't move.

"Just remember where those angry impulses of yours got you " he told

The "android" let him go and offered a hand. Kingpin shoved it away before he punched the ground as he picked himself up

"Look" Dr. Parker's voice said before the face morphed into a screen showing Peter, Gwen and Miles in similar looking apparatus. There was never a shadow of doubt into what

" I told you this before and I'm telling you again, once we are done you will never need anything again in your life. Do you think I'd make such a claim without due diligence"

Kingpin looked at their unconscious faces and realised he had a point. He couldn't do what this world's Peter had done. He knew he had no cards to play apart from his mind. That was the only thing he had going for him.

"Fine"

Dr. Parker sighed as the screen closed. He knew Kingpin would be a problem but he had bigger fish to fry , He knew it was going to be hard, but this was a new level of chaos that was becoming quite challenging for his "androids" to deal with was quite challenging. Of course they were completely used to him as he only simulated with his own traumatic situation over and over again. Each of the three captives were trying their best to resist the system, which opened up a whole slew of challenges that his systems were struggling to cope with.

Benjamin walked up to him and said

"That minion of yours is not ready"

"Tell me something I don't already know"

"Ok how about the fact that he really is not ready"

Dr. Parker sighed, his uncle always had a way with words ever since he could remember to snap him into the real world whenever he went into auto- pilot.

"Why?" he replied knowing he couldn't get away with it.

"That young Spider-boy.."

"Miles..What about him?

"He seems to have a heightened senses that is throwing your minion off. He managed to shut down every iteration of the simulation he came up with."

"It's Ok they're adaptable"

" Sure they are to you and me , but this kid he is different, I don't know if it was a different kind of spider but he's changing his strategies faster than we can take him.

 _Damn it!_

"You know I would say I told you so.."

"Oh Shut up I've had enough of your patience crap!

Dr. Parker snapped before marching towards Miles's room.

Benjamin smirked and followed his nephew knowing he won this one.

 _Inside_

Miles was being bombarded with a different situation every time . He knew that there would be repercussions to holding his mind steady but this was starting to tire him out

Another iteration of Kingpin pinned him down holding his arms tight with a vice like grip on his arms and started to punch him harder than the last time. Kicking his shin, Miles ducked away jumping to the side when another Kingpin appeared in front of him. He blasted this one away only for the first one to grab him from behind and throw him away. He went flying through the air to see Gwen coming towards him and telling him to get up and fight again.

He channelled all his energy into his hands once again and punched the ground with everything he had.

Miles woke up to see Dr. Parker looking back at him

"You are becoming a headache."

 **Hey guys it's me again. I know I know you're disappointed at my speed but I've recently started a new job that takes up quite a bit of my time. You know have to pay my bills as well. Anyways I will not give up this story and I will give it as satisfying conclusion as possible. This was a small update. I cannot thank you enough for sticking to this story**


	18. Chapter 17 continued

**Dilemmas**

 _In Miles's world_

 _Mrs. May_

May sighed as she went into the room. This was getting out of hand, She knew she had to do something and fast to ward off Jefferson's questions. She

"Oh they ran off. She mumbled something about having to complete school project. I'm sure they're fine." _I hope_ she finished with a thought.

Jefferson nodded taking in everything around him in exasperation again. He knew in the back of his mind there would but this was on a whole other level. He suddenly felt a tinge of regret for harbouring all those negative feelings towards Spiderman.

Quickly shaking those feelings off. He looked around taking in the suits and came close to the one that Peter Parker used to wear. All those moments when he rushed to the scene of crime only to see everything already taken care off. He remembered feeling helpless, knowing the entire set of law couldn't do anything despite having an entire squad at his disposal during such situations. For the first time he wondered was it just the blatant dis regard for procedure or situation induced jealousy that drove his initial hate.

May pulled up the research said nephew had on Kingpin. Peter knew that Kingpin was building the reactor and was looking into the multiverse on his own. He had done his own research on the multiverse, looked into the designs of the accelerator and had reached the conclusion it wouldn't work.

"Here it is, everything that Peter had on the multiverse."

"Thank you" he replied.

Jefferson briefly looked over at the file. Yeah he had no way of understanding it without sending it back to the lab. He looked around taking everything else scrutinising every single thing in the room with a gaze looking for clues as neutral as possible.

Of course May saw right through it.

"Looking for something else officer?" she asked.

"What?..uhhhh no" he replied darting his eyes away towards her. Shaking his head he said

May turned back and started walking towards the elevator when Jefferson spoke again? "How did he manage to do it?". Seeing her perplexed reaction he continued. "Look into the multiverse. You said he was looking into it right. Can I see the tools? The readings might be useful when I take it back to the lab."

"Of course." She said

May wondered if the amount of residual radiation could somehow be linked to the time gap between different portals…Dammit that was more Peni's forte.

Jefferson put the device on top of the computers and started to scan everything. He wanted to extract as much information as he could out of this. His gut was screaming at him that he did not have the whole information. There were 6 other superheroes with the abilities of a spiderman all from different dimensions. It just seemed too much of a coincidence.

 _But if she did run into them by any chance why would she hide it now that the whole world knows about her?_ He thought.

Scanning all the computers and peripherals took quite a bit of time as the whole base was designed to keep unknown radiation signatures out until May decided to accommodate it's emission signatures into the base.

When it became time for him to leave, he remembered the mess he saw earlier and said "Mrs. May why don't I help you out with all this."

"What do you mean?"

"You clearly need some help around here, besides" he glanced at his watch and said." I'm off the clock. I just need to submit this to the lab, see what they can find, and I can be back. Plus Miles should be back soon am I right?"

" _Oh Shit.."_

 _In 1933_

"Dammit!"

Max slapped his face and immediately regretted it . In his frustration he had forgotten it was a sm It seems some sick force out there was hell bent on trying to stop him.

"How the hell am I going to get clearances for all this?"

It was almost as if Peter Parker did not want to be found. A few of the people who were willing to talk to him gave vague details about his whereabouts. One even cracked and said to not give out any information to anyone asking for him.

Of course Max couldn't blame that last one. Interrogating over the telephone makes you sound like a madman and the whole act makes employee assigned to the telephone look at you like a madman! so he didn't push further.

He usually managed to keep his calm but he kept running into the same kind of people who liked to push buttons especially when it came to withholding information. He kept trying some of those numbers but many had either disconnected the lines or simply did not have the information he needed.

This brought him to his current predicament of staring at his phone and debating internally whether to call the chief and start doing this whole investigation the legal way.

His mind was whirling with several thoughts when something finally clicked. Some of the kind of clientele that Peter Parker dealt with were very similar to what Spiderman had dealt with in the past. His eyes darted to the stack of files lying next to the telephone.

 _Could it be that they had contacted each other and Peter Parker was another partner just like myself?_

He sighed and wondered when he suddenly remembered the photo he found. If both were detectives it was possible Peter Parker managed to reach out to Spiderman. But why disappear after that?

He started sorting through the files page by page. He knew it was probably in vain but there was something inside him. He couldn't explain it but the idea that someone else knew Spiderman's secrets and was a close confidante did not sit well with him and his earlier cheeriness was gone.

Looking at the clock he saw it was quite late. Groaning he turned his face around when the dust flared up his injury. The bed had not been cleaned in months, he barely stayed as it is.

Slowly he drifted off to sleep knowing it wouldn't last more than a few hours.

 _In the other universe_

Spider-noir crouched as he held an innocent man who was heaving as he held him. He saw as everything changed again for the umpteenth time. The worst part was the fact that every time he was shown everything, it wasn't getting any easier to block anything. Whatever stuff they had put on his head, it seemed to be working.

Spider-noir looked up and saw Max looking at him.

"I'm not going to play this game"

Spider-noir held his head in pain as

"Why don't you trust me man?"

Every emotion he felt was heightened just like his senses as he stumbled forward to face Max or whoever the hell this was"

"Why are you doing this? What do you want?" he grunted in pain.

"Don't you get it. All of it, everything that happens to me is on you. You can't fight it."

" You know for someone who has an awful lot of resources in his hands, you sure don't know how to use it properly. You know I won't break. I'll just pass out eventually."

Spider-noir stood up barely able to walk when thugs appeared in front of him, he saw himself engage in combat with them. One by one he took them down with right hooks, jabs and swift kicks before hearing the gunshot. He saw Max falling to the ground, he remembered failing to stop the person. His intense guilt and pain took over again.

"Screw it" Spider-noir closed his eyes as he allowed the pain to take over till he couldn't take it anymore and passed out.

 _Elsewhere_

Peni took in everything that was happening around her until her eyes landed on Spider-noir. She saw him from above as he twisted and turned with his eyes clothes before he stilled.

"What do you want to do?" Spider-ham asked her.

She looked up and looked back at the near lifeless body of Spider-noir. There was no way they could fight them all.

"We have to give ourselves up"

"and? What good will that do?"

"And nothing. We don't have a choice here" she replied sharply.

"What if we shut this whole place down?"

"And how do we do that? Every section of this place is powered by a separate power lines. As far as I can see there is no single goober that will shut it down."

Spider-Ham looked down at Miles who was now limp.

"unless..we go in on our own"

"What?"

He was cut off as an "android" latched on to him and held him close. He slipped away from his hold and pulled out a tool and smashed the "android's" head as his metallic fist landed him right besides Miles.

Spitting out the blood he staggered to his feet as Dr. Parker appeared in front of him. Holding up a hand he stopped the android.

"Hear me out man"

"I'm not a man"

Fine just..just hear me out. I don't want to fight you"

"Na Let my friends out and then we're talking"

"You tried fighting your way out it did not exactly work now did it?"

Peni landed just besides him and said "Fine what are you proposing?"

"I'll let you be with your friends. While you accept that you're not leaving anytime soon. I heard you. You were thinking about entering the worlds in which your friends occupy yourselves. I'll plug you guys in and you can have a happy reunion"

Peni and Spider-ham looked at each other knowing they had no choice. Peni nodded but remembered.

"I go back to my world to keep the spider.."

"Uhh yeah that's not needed. I already got everything I need from him. I'll plug him in so you'll feel him like never before."

After a silence that could have lasted a minute

"So what do you say?" Dr. Parker asked.

 _In another room_

Benjamin was addressing the board room.

"Let me get this straight. Instead of making the subjects go through the trauma over and over again so that they can begin to heal at a psychological level, and potentially unlock secrets of the brain. You want to let them choose the simulation."

"Yes. That is accurate"

"I thought you said the tech wasn't ready"

"That was before the "androids" were just "androids". Now they have begun to display emotions, almost human like. I can show you a demo if you'd want."

The "android" stepped forward and spoke.

"Hello members of the board. Allow me to show you we can build the best worlds for all of us" in a perfect impersonation of 's voice.

"Dear God there's two of them" one member retorted.

"Well the company has tolerated you for so long so Im pretty sure it can accept me"

A few chuckles went around the room when the same ember asked.

"All right hotshot, how are you going to heal someone who is too far gone"

"By giving someone whatever they want, whenever they want it" He replied.

 **Hey guys this one is mostly a filler chapter while I work on the next few chapters. Thanks for the support and as always share your thoughts.**


	19. Chapter 17 part 3

**Insight**

 _In the other universe_

"Benjamin this isn't funny. What's really going on?" as the board member stared in awe at the perfect replica of his former girlfriend staring back at him.

"You were thinking about this. He's…uh well she's just showing you what you want."

"How is this even possible?

The "android" transformed back to it's normal self. He approached the board member and reached out and grabbed the board member's forehead. He started to shake violently as his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

The ground moved from his feet and he was in free fall. He screamed at the top of his voice in joy as the web pulled him back into the air and the people below him cheered on as he latched on as Spiderman.

" _I could get used to this"_

Soaring through the air he couldn't remember the last time he felt this good. It felt like he could do anything, literally and wondered if he could share his experiences with his family…

He was back at the beach. The one he had wanted to own for a very long time. His retirement plan. Turning around he started walking back to the beach house that he had drawn out a long time ago. He was back at his house, watching tv with his family. But something was odd, he couldn't really focus on them. They turned to look at him only to appear as blurry 3 dimensional versions of themselves…

Then he was back at the conference room and stopped screaming.

"Sorry about that. I thought it was taken care off." Benjamin spoke up

"What just happened?."

"The first bit was your perfect life or your fantasy as you choose to see it. "

Benjamin turned to the board member and asked

"What did you see in the end?"

" I saw my family. But it was weird.

"How so?"

'They were blurred. Sort of present and not"

Benjamin sighed. " Uh…Baby Steps I suppose. These "androids" have managed to gain sentience."

Collective gasps and whispers followed as they each began to ponder the implications of what they saw.

"When you started to shout in joy you were reliving a happy memory. Until now they have been primarily had the task of creating the worlds in which our end users heal in."

Benjamin paused before continuing " and these "androids" will be responsible for them.

 _Elsewhere some time back_

Gwen turned back around and looked at Peter. He was able to answer every single question that she asked her. But she knew the second she was able to hear his heartbeat, that it wasn't him.

She sighed, knowing it won't do any good to fight. Sitting down she folded her knees and put her face between them perched on her hands and decided to just ignore him. She knew that it was futile to resist.

"Am I allowed to return the favour?"

Gwen tightly pressing her lips together and swallowed the bile she felt on the tip of her tongue. She was not going to give him the satisfaction. She remembered the banter they used to have every time she felt upset…It made her scared and sick at the same time…. _No no Dammit! Focus on finding your friends._

"Peter" came and sat down beside her in a similar position. Piece by piece their surroundings started to change and they could see the sunset over the distance. It was eerily quiet except for the movement of cars.

"Why are you doing this?" she said in a hoarse voice refusing to look up and knowing what day it was.

"Oh now you want to talk?"

"What are you hoping to achieve here huh? You think I don't know that sent one of his "androids" or whatever the hell you guys are and put me here with you."

"Peter" sighed. This was a new feeling for him. He was learning more every day.

"So what if I am? I'm still the same as him"

"Look who finally admitted the truth. At least you're as slow as he was."

Peter smirked. "Uh what?"

" It's called sarcasm genius. Ask your boss to teach you that."

"Oh Ok" "Peter" said recording this new information.

They sat like this for a long time as Gwen's frustration decided to turn into boredom. She decided to explore this virtual New York the old fashioned way seeing as she had nothing better to do. She jumped down from the building and started to walk.

"Just out of curiosity how did you manage to figure it out?

"Ya I'm not going to answer that"

"Okay"

"Now you really sound like a bot"

"I thought I was one. Pick a side"

Gwen turned around and looked at "Peter" in exasperation. _I suppose they learn fast_.

"Enough about me. Let's talk about you" "Peter" said.

"The fact that you still cling to this memory says something"

Gwen chose not to answer.

"Peter" calculated several possibilities and wondered the best course of action would be. "

Gwen was walking down this path again feeling the familiar rush of feelings coursing through her again. She refused to let herself think it. But the truth was now she hung on to his memory only to remind herself that all good things go away, so she had to fight to keep it. She guessed the current situation was as good as any. She had no idea where to find her friends and asking him would certainly do no good. The constant sporadic appearances of her friends like a bad reminder were not helping.

"Can you at least make all this stop?" she asked.

"Actually that bit is mostly you with a bit of my programming sprinkled in. The simulation is designed to bring your thoughts and feelings out."

Gwen wanted to point out that showing someone their worst fears was not really helping her but she doubted it would do any good at this point so she tried something else.

"How can I reach my friends?"

"That's up to you. But from what I've been picking up on you've been holding back on them for a while now. Now granted I am new to feelings, but it seems to me that your association with one Miles Morales is very strange."

Gwen froze in her tracks.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean he clearly likes you in a romantic manner or at least the biophysical changes humans associated with mating and yet you do not reciprocate them…."

At this she nearly tripped over a rock for the first time she got her powers.

 _What the hell is he going on about?"_

"….but then I realized this is more about you blocking them out."

"Will you stop acting talking like that? I know you're not a robot"

"Sorry I slipped back to my original language preferences once you realised who I am."

She pondered this information for a while before he spoke up again.

"He really likes you Gwen, and for that matter your friends do like you very much. So the question is why are you holding back?..

"Do you not like them?" "Peter" asked

"Of course I do, it's just…" she didn't know how to process this new information. It's true that she did like all her friends very much but it was always the what if? What if they were taken away from her again. What if she was forced to choose again. She didn't know how to let go of the what ifs

Miles appeared in front of her again during one of those awkward interactions they never failed to have despite knowing each other much better. His awkwardness, his lame attempts at humour, everything about him was endearing but she never realised he liked her that way.

She had to find him.

"You want to save them right? Figure out what you want."

 **NOTE:- I know, I know another short chapter, just bear with me alright, writer's block is not easy to overcome but I think I'm figuring out the next and likely the final phase of the story. As usual Thanks and do share your thoughts.**


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